Just Like Me
by cherrygorilla
Summary: Almost ten years down the line, Mack and Brady are both in pretty stable areas of their lives. They both have successful careers, they just bought a house and most of all, they're still together. But as their second wedding anniversary is fast approaching, something rather unexpected turns their lives upside down. And unexpected thing is that Mack happens to be expecting.
1. Positive Outcomes

**Hello!**

 **I really don't have an explanation for why I decided to post this. I just got struck with inspiration last night and wrote this in an hour, so if it's not good then that's the reason.**

 **I was talking to my friend at school though the other day and we both decided that our favourite genre of fanfiction was family based stuff, especially when they're really cute. So, totally ready to read some adorable content, I logged on to the website after school and found virtually nothing in the Teen Beach Movie archive. And since there was so few family stories, I decided to try my hand at writing one myself.**

 **I know that I said that I won't be updating my other story until the end of October for my Halloween one-shot week, but I write those stories on the computer and I got the idea for this last night so I just typed it up on my phone.**

 **I don't know if anyone's interested in reading a story like this but I thought that I'd try something different. Maybe it'll go well, who knows?**

 **I hope that you enjoy it!**

The pale blue box sat at the bottom of her bag, glaring up at her. It only became visible once she'd dumped her pile of reports on the kitchen table and suddenly the events of this morning came flooding back to her.

After weeks of battling a constant uneasy stomach, Mack had decided that something wasn't right. Her mind had been occupied the entire ride to work with various, albeit highly unlikely, solutions to her nausea. But she couldn't shake the feeling that something was different about her. And every time that she wracked her brain for a reason why, her train of thought always returned to the same station: pregnancy. Which is why she was currently having a staring contest with the little blue box that she had picked up at the drug store during her lunch break.

Normally Mack and Brady got home around the same time, each leaving their respective work places just in time to meet each other on the driveway. However, Brady's text message from ten minutes ago stated that he would be a couple of minutes late because he was dealing with something back at the shop. Frankly, Mack had too much on her mind to question him further so she just left it until she saw him in person. Now that she had some time alone though, it would be the perfect opportunity to remove the dastardly ominous box from her satchel and put her whirring mind at rest. At least this way, if it came out negative then she could just keep it to herself. Before she could have a second thought, Mack picked up the box and walked into the bathroom, her chocolate brown eyes already scanning the instructions on the back.

* * *

Fast forward ten minutes though and the brunette's eyes are glued to the two lines. The two lines that meant that the test was positive. The two lines that meant that she was pregnant. That she and Brady were going to have a baby. She didn't know whether it was the shock of it all or her nausea flaring up again but she felt her stomach start to perform backflips.

Mack and Brady had been married for almost two years now, so the subject of babies was definitely on the table...just a bit further down on their list of priorities. It's not that they didn't want to have children, it was just that they both had a lot on their plates right now with work and finalising the financial side of the house that they had just bought together.

The front door may have clicked open at some point during the time that she was hovering in the bathroom, but she couldn't have told you for definite. She also didn't hear Brady calling her name twice because the blood was rushing around her head too loudly for her to concentrate. Eventually she managed to prise herself away from the sink that she had been steadying herself on long enough to step towards the door. She was in such a trance that she didn't even think to put the test down, let alone look up as she walked out into the hallway. And this simple little error is what caused her to crash into the lanky blonde that she's so happy to call her husband. Although she wasn't as happy today as she usually was around him, but that was mainly just because of her shock.

"Hey, there you are. I've been looking all over for you, I was getting worried," Brady smiled, clearly relieved to know that Mack was ok. Although 'OK' wasn't really the right word for how Mack was feeling right now.

Her stomach, which was still trying to tie itself in knots, dropped to her feet as soon as she laid eyes on Brady. She'd been so caught up worrying about the pregnancy herself that she'd completely forgotten about telling Brady and how he would react.

Brady had a lot going on down at the surf shack, his surfboard business was really thriving. But she also knew that he was under a lot of stress right now because he had a pitch to a rather large organisation coming up, which, if it went well, could turn her husband's quaint little business into a global success. Could this news be a major problem for him? How was he going to react? Could she even bring herself to tell him at this point?

"What's that?"

Brady's words brought her tumbling back to reality but struck fear down to her core. His warm brown eyes were trained on the white stick in her hands, an unreadable expression crossing his face.

Mack knew that see couldn't put it off any longer. What was the point in doing that anyway? She couldn't lie to Brady about something as huge as this after all. But tears choked her words as she tried to make them come out of her mouth and in the end she just hurried past him, brushing away a tear that had broken through the barricade and had fallen to her cheek.

"Mack?" Brady questioned, the concern in his voice very clear as he followed his wife.

Mack stopped at the kitchen counter, placing the white stick face up on the surface in front of her. Instinctively her hands slid to her stomach as it hit her for the first time that there was a tiny human growing in there. She felt a hand on her arm and then a chin on her shoulder and she instantly relaxed into Brady's touch, waiting on tenterhooks for his response to the two lines looking up at him.

"That means that you're pregnant, right?" Brady checked, making sure that he had his facts straight before making any assumptions that might upset Mack even more.

Mack weakly nodded, silently letting a tear slip down her face.

"Wow," Brady breathed. Even though Mack wasn't looking at him, she could tell that he was grinning like an idiot. There was a childlike innocence and awe in Brady's voice when he got excited like this that made her wonder how she could ever have doubted him. No matter how busy he was at work, no matter how stressed he might be, his family always came first. And the news that he was going to have a new addition to his family was some of the best news that Brady could have heard. Neither of the twenty six year olds had planned this pregnancy and neither had expected it to come up so suddenly. But somehow it felt right. How, they had no idea though.

"What are you thinking?" Mack asked shakily, trying to calm her nerves without much success.

"I don't really know how to put it into words," Brady admitted with a bashful chuckle. "I just feel strangely amazing."

"Really?"

"Really. Why what are you thinking?" Brady asked, his tone changing slightly as if he was uncertain if what he was feeling was right or not.

"A lot of things," Mack confessed, bits and pieces of information to comprehend flying around her brain, making it hard to think straight.

"That's understandable," Brady said quietly, moving his mouth closer to her ear as he moved his hand closer to her shoulder.

"I'm nervous, Brady," Mack whispered, scaring herself by actually saying it out loud. But it was the only thought that she could actually make out for definite because it was so strong, everything else just melted into one big blur.

"You don't need to be, everything's going to be fine," Brady reassured her. "Isn't this what we've always wanted? I mean sure, it's been put on the back burner over the past year or so but that doesn't mean that we can't get excited about it."

"But what about everything at work, Brady. You've got so much going on that-" Mack started, blathering on about her problems to see if it will make them go away.

"Mack, who cares about boring grown up stuff like work?" Brady chuckled, gently spinning his wife around to face him.

"You," Mack replied, still a little uneasy about the whole situation.

"Nope, wrong answer," Brady grinned mischievously, tapping the brunette on the tip of her nose before continuing. "You know that my main priority is always you. But now, you're going to have to share that main priority slot with this little one," Brady continued, lacing his hand between Mack's fingers over her stomach.

Mack felt herself smiling, she couldn't help it around Brady, he brought it out of her, especially when he was being as sweet as he was right now. She didn't know if it was her hormones already staring to act up but her panicked tears had now turned into happy ones that started to free-fall now, leaving glistening trails behind on her cheeks.

Brady brushed the tears away with his thumb before planting a reassuring kiss on her forehead.

"We're going to get through this together, ok?" Brady prepositioned, wrapping his arms around Mack's waist as he brought her into a hug.

"Ok," Mack agreed, nestling her head into Brady's chest. "We can do this," Mack murmured, trying to dispel her concerns and give herself some much needed confidence in this area.

"Mack, it's us," Brady said, resting his chin on the top of his head as he ran his fingers through his wife's hair. "Of course we're going to be fine."

And they hoped with all of their hearts that they would be.

This was merely the start of one of the biggest adventures any couple could ever go on, hopefully they could make their way to the end in one piece to witness their lies changing forever.

 **So that's the first chapter!**

 **Let me know what you thought of it! Should I continue? Are you interested in reading something like this? Was this first chapter any good?**

 **Also, I'm still debating whether I want to bring the Wet Side Story characters into the story so let me know your thoughts on that too.**

 **I don't really know when (or if) the next chapter will be posted, I'll see what the reaction to this is first before I decide to write any more.**

 **I think that's all for now! Thank you so much for reading if you got this far!**

 **-cherrygorilla**


	2. Baby Grape

**Hello!**

 **So I'm back with another chapter! I was so pleased with all of the positive feedback I got from this story! Six reviews already! That's amazing, thank you so much! I really wasn't expecting the reaction that I got and I can't thank you enough for it! :)**

 **But enough of my rambling, here's chapter two!**

Mack collected the pile of bills and junk-mail leaflets that had gathered at the foot of the front door. A plain white envelope with her address printed onto it caught her eye as she sifted through the pile. The remainder of the post was mindlessly dumped onto the countertop as Mack slid back down into her seat opposite her husband.

"What'cha got there?" Brady asked through a mouthful of granola. But Mack was already ripping through the letter's seal as he spoke.

"It's from the health clinic," Mack replied once she'd unfurled the single piece of paper hidden inside.

"And?" Brady questioned, the tone of his voice showing that this information made him ever so slightly more nervous.

* * *

"I'm definitely pregnant," Mack sighed, a small smile curling at her lips as she continued to read through the letter. "Seven weeks along."

Mack and Brady, despite being pretty confident that their home-pregnancy test had been correct, had wanted to confirm that they were definitely going to have a baby. After all, store-bought pregnancy tests had a reputation for being a little bit unreliable. So one doctor's visit and a lot of papers to fill out later, they finally had some solid answers.

* * *

"Really? That far already?" Brady questioned, earning a curt nod from Mack. "Great, cool," he said, sharing Mack's smile as he gazed across the table at her. Right now, she couldn't have looked any more beautiful to him. Even though her hair was thrown up in a messy bun and she was wearing a faded, sky blue dressing gown that he knew for a fact was almost ten years old (he had bought it for her the first Christmas that they were together); the fact alone that she was carrying his child made him whole heartedly believe that she was the most incredible woman alive. It just happened to be a bonus that she was his gorgeous wife. "So, what do we do now? Just wait for nine months?" Brady chuckled, quite obviously joking, although Mack didn't really seem to be catching on.

"No," she said rather bluntly, her smile seeming to have slipped off her face. Her eyebrows furrowed as her eyes scanned the page, concentrating as she tried to pick out the bits of information that concerned her. Which, funnily enough, were rather a lot of them. "I guess nothing until next week though," she finally said, lowering the piece of paper so that she could look over the top of it at the blonde sat across from her.

"What do you mean?" Brady asked, moving another spoonful of granola towards his mouth.

"It says that's when my first prenatal appointment is," Mack answered, her eyes flitting down for a second to check that she was right.

"What happens at that?" Brady asked as Mack let out a heavy sigh.

"It's just a meeting with a doctor to discuss the pregnancy so far...I think," she said, dropping the letter down onto the table and resting her head in her hands.

"Look, I know I'm asking a lot of questions, Mack," Brady started, sensing his wife's irritation with his constant game of interrogation. "But do you expect me to know any of this stuff? I just don't want to sound like an idiot, I want to help out," he continued, putting down his spoon instead of trying to shovel more food into his mouth.

"I know you do," Mack said, laying her hand on top of Brady's. "I'm just still trying to take all of this in. The only reason that I have a mild understanding and a limited knowledge of what I'm going on about is because I've spent the past five nights researching stuff. I'm basically just as clueless as you," she confessed, rubbing circles on the back of Brady's hand with her thumb.

"We can't stay clueless though, we've got to learn somehow or we're going to be in for a pretty big shock later," Brady said, giving up on trying to restrain himself from the food in front of him anymore as he stuffed his mouth once again.

"Ok then, let's set ourselves a challenge," Mack propositioned. "By the time we go to this doctor's visit thing next week, we are going to be pregnancy experts. We don't want to sound like morons, right? They're going to think we're useless."

"Isn't that what we are though?" Brady asked, quirking one of his eyebrows.

"For now, maybe," Mack said, resting her head on her hand again. "But we can fix that, right?"

"Right," Brady agreed, wielding his spoon like a magic wand as he pointed it in her direction.

"We are going to be the most prepared first-time parents there has even been," Mack said, stating it as if it were a fact rather than the extremely uncertain statement that it had been in reality.

"Definitely," Brady grinned, raising his hand out in front of him in anticipation of a high five, which Mack gladly delivered. "Team Baby Grape is officially a go," he announced, slouching back in his chair.

"Team Baby Grape?" Mack questioned as her left eyebrow almost disappeared into her hairline from raising so far.

"Yeah," Brady chuckled, finding Mack's perplexed expression extremely comical.

"What on earth are you talking about?" Mack asked, staring at Brady as if he had three heads.

"Well you know how people start calling their babies things like peanut or whatever?" Brady started, Mack's train of thought promptly chugging along beside his in understanding so far.

"Yeah," she said with a small nod.

"Well I have just decided to call our's Grape," Brady finished simply, completely derailing Mack's train of thought this time.

"Grape? Why grape?" Mack asked, her eyebrows now knitted together as she tried to fathom out Brady's thought process and see where she took a wrong turn.

But it turns out that the only reason behind Brady's nickname choice was the bowl, which held his wife's breakfast contents, in front of him. To answer Mack's question, he picked up one of the small, green pieces of fruit and gently tossed it in her direction. The grape bounced off the tip of Mack's nose before her reflexes could kick in, leaving her sporting a considerably shocked expression. It did help her to understand where Brady had plucked the name from though. That didn't mean that she liked it though.

"Brady, we're not referring to our unborn child as Baby Grape," she said, shooting her admittedly quite childish husband a disapproving look.

Long story short, they ended up referring to it as Baby Grape. The name somehow seemed to stick, even after Brady gave in and agreed to think of a new one. It just kept slipping out.

And just like the letter had stated, one week, many tests and lots and lots of very personal questions that Brady found sitting through rather awkward later Mack and Brady were walking out of the health clinic hand in hand with giddy smiles on their faces.

"That was insane," Brady breathed, gently swinging his and Mack's hands back and forth.

"I know, it's all becoming scarily real, isn't it?" Mack sighed, sliding her free hand over her still pretty flat stomach. There was a hint of roundness to it if you looked at it from the right angle but Mack was indignant that it wasn't a baby bump yet.

"At least we know that Grape's healthy," Brady chuckled, moving his arm up to wrap around Mack's shoulder to give it a reassuring squeeze.

"Yeah," Mack said, her grin softening at Brady's touch. But her expression soon changed when Brady's words set in. "Wait, you just called it Grape again, didn't you?"

"I can't help it!" Brady chuckled, holding his hands up in surrender.

"You need to stop, you're going to get me saying it soon," Mack teased, giving the blonde a light jab in the ribs with her elbow.

"Well it needs some sort of name, it's a real thing, we just saw evidence of it," Brady replied, referring to the slightly fuzzy ultrasound that they had just sat through a few minutes ago.

"I know, it's crazy, huh?" Mack sighed, relaxing back into Brady's touch as he replaced his arm around her shoulders.

"It's really in there," Brady said, sliding his bunch of keys out of his pocket as they approached his dark blue car.

"Yeah, our little Baby Grape," Mack smiled, mentally slapping herself once she'd realised what she'd said. "Oh god. I told you I'd start saying it!" she cried, although her frustration was masked by her laughter, which Brady easily exceeded. The blonde's laughter continued the entire car journey back home, only to be briefly interrupted by the couple's signature karaoke session that took place every time they were in a vehicle together.

Hopefully Baby Grape liked music because if he or she didn't then they'd have to endure some rather painful car journeys.

 **Ok, I know that wasn't the best but I still really hope that you enjoyed it!**

 **Baby Grape was the best nickname that I could come up with at half past eleven last night so I apologise for it being so terrible. Leave me some name suggestions in a review so that I can go back and change it to something better. Or if you happen to like it (which I seriously doubt) then let me know too, help me put my mind at rest!**

 **I want to thank you again for the wonderful feedback because it really does mean the world to me! And I want to get you involved with this story as much as I can so if you have any little things that you'd like me to include in chapters then don't hesitate to let me know. I love to hear your ideas!**

 **I think that's all for now though! I'll get started on the next chapter as soon as I can!**

 **Thank you for reading!**

 **-cherrygorilla**


	3. Birthday Heartbeats

**Hello!**

 **Sorry that I didn't post this chapter sooner, I haven't had as much time to write it because it's the middle of the school week. Hopefully you didn't have to wait too long!**

 **I was going to leave this until tomorrow to post because I found out that it will be my two year anniversary of having this account, but I decided not to keep you waiting. I don't know if I should be celebrating this anniversary thing or not. What do you think?**

 **Anyway, you didn't come here to read my rambles, you came to read the chapter (I hope!). So here it is!**

The sun broke through a crack in the curtains as Brady's eyes prised open. He rolled over onto his side, expecting to see his wife laid beside him, but instead he was met with Mack's half of the duvet balled up where her body should have been. He threw back the blanket and sleepily got to his feet before lumbering into the hall and across to the bathroom, where he stopped and softly knocked on the door. "Mack?" he called, gently pushing the door open.

"Brady?" his wife replied, surprised and strangely upset to see him standing in the doorway.

"You ok in here?" Brady asked, raising an eyebrow at the brunette, who was steadily rising out of her squatted position next to her new best friend of late: the toilet.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Mack said breathily, bracing herself against the sink basin as another wave of nausea hit her with full force.

"You're not though," Brady replied, completely seeing through Mack's charade that she felt 'fine'.

"Just go back to bed, Brady," Mack snapped, gulping down air to try to quell her churning stomach.

"And why should I be listening to the crazy pregnant lady who keeps insisting that she's ok despite hurling every time I turn my back?" Brady challenged, his voice dripping with sarcasm that Mack hadn't had any patience with recently.

"And why do I have to justify myself to you?" she bit back with a mocking smile, running her toothbrush under the tap and applying a small blob of toothpaste to the end of it.

"Mack, I was joking," Brady chuckled, leaning lazily against the doorframe.

"Good, but I wasn't," Mack grouched, putting on a false smile before sticking the toothbrush into her mouth in an attempt to get the bitter taste of bile out of her mouth.

"Hey, you can't be mean to me on my birthday," Brady smirked, watching as Mack spat the contents of her mouth into the sink.

"I didn't intend to but if you had just gone back to bed like I asked you to then this wouldn't have happened, would it?" Mack replied, looking up at Brady's reflection in the mirror in front of her instead of making eye contact with him.

"Sorry for wanting to make sure that you're ok," Brady said sarcastically, beginning to roll his eyes before stopping after he decided that it probably wasn't the best move.

"I just wanted to do something nice for you, Brady. You were so sweet when it was my birthday that I wanted to return the favour and surprise you. But then you woke up too early and my stupid morning sickness got in the way and now everything's ruined," Mack blubbered. She'd started out strong but her 'out-of-whack emotions' as Brady had so lovingly branded them, had gotten the better of her and made her eyes well up with fresh tears.

"Oh no, here come the waterworks," Brady sighed, trying to keep his jokey facade up because he wanted to prevent Mack from getting any more upset than she already was.

"Oh stop, I can't help it," Mack mewled as Brady stepped up and hugged her from behind.

"Look, how about you have a do-over?" the blonde suggested, sliding his hands around his wife's waist as he cupped her still very small baby 'mound' as they were now referring to it as. "I'll go back to bed and pretend that none of this happened and then you can shower me with my presents," he continued, glancing up at the mirror and watching Mack's lips twist into a small smile in the reflection. "How does that sound?"

"Great," Mack bashfully admitted, quite embarrassed that she'd gotten so worked up about something so insignificant.

"Ok, whatever you wish m'lady," Brady exclaimed sarcastically, sweeping into an overly-enthusiastic now before turning on his heels and sauntering out of the bathroom, leaving Mack chuckling to herself beside the sink.

* * *

"Ok, now one final thing," the doctor said, leaning across her table to grab something. Dr. Rachel Morris, as she'd introduced herself, looked to be in her late thirties. Her chestnut brown hair framed her laugh-line weathered face and provided a stark contrast to her startlingly white lab coat. She looked like the kind of doctor you'd see on a billboard for vitamins, too perfect to be real. "Let's listen to this baby's heart beat," she finished, flashing the young couple with an excitable smile as if to say that she was looking forward to this part just as much as they were.

Mack's arm moved down from the side of the reclined chair so that she could entwine her hand with Brady's. Although a blurry ultrasound image was suffice to telling them that their baby was a real, living thing, they felt like hearing the heartbeat was a step further. Picture evidence was fine but getting to listen to the centre of their child's being first-hand would suddenly make this entire thing totally, yet scarily, real.

The doctor flipped a switch on a machine beside her before placing a fat, electronic wand on Mack's abdomen and beginning to slowly move it around. After a few seconds of unsure crackling, the sound of what seemed to be soft waves filled the room with a steady, metronome-like thudding accentuating it.

"There we go," Dr Rachel smiled, watching happily as the proud parents-to-be gazed at each other with huge grins. "Sounds like a perfectly healthy baby to me," she added.

"Hear that, Mack?" Brady asked, quickly glancing up at the doctor to give her a grateful smile. "Grape's perfectly healthy."

"First of all, stop called he or she Grape, it's got to stop," Mack started, not being completely serious but still meaning what she said a little bit. The name was absolutely ridiculous after all. "And second of all, I can't believe this is really happening," she breathed, still trying to take in the fact that her baby's heart beat was echoing around the room. The heart beat of the baby that was currently growing inside of her.

"Well what more proof do you need, Sweetie? We're kind of running out of options here," Brady chuckled, making Mack let out a small laugh too.

"I don't mean that, it's just crazy to think that sound is our kid," Mack explained, gently squeezing Brady's hand.

"I know, it's crazy," Brady admitted, squeezing her hand back, although his motion was more for reassurance.

"It's beautiful," Mack said, starting to tear up before she could stop herself.

"Alright Miss Emotional," Brady said sarcastically, making Mack let out a watery laugh.

"I can't help it," Mack whined through her laughs, dabbing at her tears with the edge of her thumb. "It's not my fault I'm so hormonal."

"Oh yeah, just blame it all on the hormones," Brady continued, keeping the same sarcastic tone as before.

"What so you're allowed to blame your farts on me but I'm not allowed to blame my uncontrollable crying on the baby?" Mack challenged, playfully raising one of her eyebrows at the blonde sat beside her.

"Touché ," Brady chuckled, as the heartbeat machine was turned off and the doctor started to finalise the paper work that applied to them. "Well played," he continued, shooting his wife a surprisingly impressed smile. "The student is becoming the master of blackmailing and sarcasm."

"Well I have been practicing," Mack smirked, folding her t-shirt down to cover her stomach before sitting up on the bench.

"Although I love all the gifts you gave me this morning," Brady started as Mack childishly swung her legs back and forth over the side of the bench. "That was the best gift of all," he finished, planting a kiss of Mack's lips, which were sprawled out in a reckless grin.

Once the brunette had broken away from the kiss, she grabbed her jacket from the end of the bench, which Brady promptly helped her to get off. Even though she hadn't requested his help and would have denied it of he'd asked her, Mack was learning to become more accepting of her husband's chivalrous attempts to take care of her. Sure they were just small things, but they were starting to mean more and more to Mack, making her appreciate her goofy husband more than ever before. And she didn't really have a clue why.

Mack had always been a strong believer in feminism, but she now knew that that didn't limit her. She could willingly accept help from her husband without feeling the need to do it herself. Maybe it had come with maturity, or maybe she's just taken a leaf out of a rather familiar movie character's book. It had finally dawned on her that every now and then it was fine to let someone take care of you, you don't always have to look after yourself.

* * *

Now that they had reached this stage in the pregnancy and now that they had heard the baby's heart beat for the first time, it was just the question of when they were going to share their big news with the world. Well, not really the world, more like just their friends and family. Now, that should have been the question that they were discussing on their ride home, but the question that they were actually battling through was: who's making the phone calls and who's finding the necklace?

 **There's the third chapter! I really hope that you enjoyed it!**

 **A lovely reviewer commented on my last chapter that I need to work on my dialogue, which I totally agree with because I know that it's not that good, so hopefully it's a bit better this chapter. I'm still working on it though, I promise!**

 **Next chapter, in case you hadn't guessed it already, I was planning on it to be based around Mack and Brady telling the Wet Side Story/Lela Queen Of The Beach characters that they're expecting a baby. Now, for this to work I need to know what couples you'd like me to include. I'll obviously be using Lela and Tanner but you can decide the rest of them. It can be any couple from any of my stories or one that I've never written about before and the ones that seem to be the most popular will be the ones that I include in the story. They're not going to have huge roles since this story is mainly based on Mack and Brady but I just wanted to have them mentioned in the background and make them have small appearances in chapters. You know what I mean?**

 **Also, linking to that other point, do you want me to do a chapter focusing on Mack and Brady telling their friends and family members in the real world? Would you be interested in reading that? Let me know!**

 **Finally, although a lot of you didn't seem to mind the name Baby Grape, I still feel like it could be a lot better. I originally wanted something with a little more meaning to them but my mind is just completely blank. I have no ideas whatsoever. So any suggestion at this point would be a good one, please don't hesitate to leave a review if you think of one! I'd really, really appreciate if you could help me out!**

 **Finally, I just wanted to let you know that your reviews mean the world to me, I can't that you enough for them! It makes me so happy to know that you're enjoying this story!**

 **Ok, I think that's everything for now!**

 **Thank you so much for reading!**

 **-cherrygorilla**


	4. Movie Reactions

**Hello!**

 **Sorry that I took so long to write this, it took me a while to work out all do the names that are included in this chapter since I wanted to make sure that they were perfect. I hope that you don't mind too much!**

The plus side of using the necklace to switch between worlds was that it didn't require you to physically swim in the water. Just as long as you were holding it in the ankle-high surf, you could walk a few paces and find yourself standing directly opposite the infamous 1960s beach cafe: Big Momma's, that Mack and Brady had discovered in their teens.

Stepping out of the shallow waves, the couple scanned the sand in front of them and broke out into smiles as a group of rather familiar people welcomed them back.

"Mack!" Lela squealed, her face lighting up at the sight of her best friend strolling towards her. The raven-haired biker girl's eyes sparkled from behind her big, cat-eye sunglasses as she waved the pair over to where she was sat on the sand.

"Brady, hi," Tanner called, dazzling Mack and Brady with one of his mega-watt smiles as a he grabbed the little figure in a pink onesie by the waist before she crawled too far off the beach towel.

"Hey guys," Brady greeted, wrapping his arm around Mack's shoulder as they approached the 1960s beach movie leads.

"Take a seat, take a seat," Lela fussed, moving bags and bottles and other items to make room for the two newcomers.

"How have you guys been?" Mack asked, shufflng around on the beach towel until she was comfortable.

"Really good, actually," Lela smiled, sharing a knowing look with Tanner before launching into her explanation. "Lily keeps trying to walk, don't you, Missy?" she cooed, tickling the 11 month old-little girl in Tanner's arms under the chin. Lily giggled and tried to squirm away from her mother's wiggling fingers, apparently finding this new game rather funny.

"Someone's enjoying themselves," Brady chuckled, watching in amusement as Lily tried to roll out of Tanner's arms onto the beach towel again.

"Well she's in a good mood today, she's been teething a lot recently so she's been especially grouchy," Lela sighed, shooting her daughter a wary look, as if she was waiting for her to burst into tears at any moment.

"Lela, don't worry, she's fine now," Tanner reassured her. "Isn't that right, Lily?" he continued, making his daughter crack a smile at the mention of her name. He then proceeded to blow a raspberry on her cheek, which made the almost one year old roar with laughter.

Lela and Tanner had married when they were still young; when they were twenty if you wanted to be exact. And although Mack and Brady thought that they were rushing into things a bit, it soon hit them that that was totally normal in the 1960s. Couples got married and started their families at a young age, it's what was expected. Which is why Lela fell pregnant a little bit less that two years later, just before she turned twenty two. Mack remembers exactly how she had reacted as if it had happened yesterday. As soon as she'd stepped out of the ocean for her and Brady's monthly visit, Lela had pretty much bowled her over by grabbing her shoulders and steering her towards the house that she was living in with Tanner.

"Lela, what's gotten into you?" Mack asked as Lela slammed the door shut behind her and began to pace up and down the hallway. "What's wrong?"

"Mack, I'm pregnant," the raven haired biker girl had blurted, her acid-wash denim blue eyes wide with fear.

Mack stood stock still, trying to take in the words that were hanging in the air, not daring to be believed in.

"Please don't freak out," Lela begged, Mack's expression paralysing her with fear.

"I'm not freaking out," Mack said calmly, still trying to wrap her head around the fact that the lead character of a beach movie musical was preparing to have a baby.

"I know but I am," Lela admitted, breaking down then and there on the spot. She sobbed into Mack's shoulder for what felt like hours until she finally started to think rationally about the idea. And once Mack had provided a supportive ear to listen to all of Lela's worries, the biker girl had never been so excited about anything in her life. She was the typical over-enthusiastic first-time mother that everyone fears of turning into, but Lela didn't care in the slightest, she embraced every single second of if. And low and behold, nine months later their beautiful daughter, Amelia Elizabeth Barretts was born. Lily Marie Barretts was Lela and Tanner's second daughter but that didn't mean that she was loved any less or that Lela had been any calmer during her second pregnancy. Lela and Tanner could never stop gushing about their two girls, their little family meant everything to them.

It was just crazy for Mack and Brady to think that they were about to start a family of their own.

Apparently, just thinking about Amelia was enough to make the excitable three year old appear now. Because it was only a few seconds before the little girl's distinctive, "Mommy! Daddy! Look!" could be heard calling out across the beach as she bounded towards them.

"What is it, Honey?" Lela asked sweetly, her pink painted lips breaking into a huge smile as she laid eyes on her other daughter.

"I got you a fwower on the walk," Amelia chirped, skipping over to her parents with her curly, chocolate brown pigtails bouncing and two bedraggled daisies clamped in her tiny fists.

"Why thank you, it's beautiful," Lela exclaimed, over-emphasising her joy at receiving the crumpled flower. Although it wasn't put on much, anything that her daughter gave her was wonderful in her eyes.

"Thank you so much, Amelia," Tanner cooed, copying Lela's mock-excitement as he was handed the other daisy by the grinning three year old. "Did you have a nice time on your walk?"

"Yeah," Amelia nodded vigorously, her pigtails furiously bouncing now. "I had lots of fun, 'specially with Uncle Butchy," she added, referring to Lela's older brother, who had so kindly agreed to take his niece out for the morning.

"Amelia, have you seen who's come to visit?" Lela piped up, prompting her daughter to awkwardly twirl around to face the brunette and blonde sitting in front of her.

"Mack! Bwady!" Amelia cried, flinging herself at Mack and wrapping her arms around her neck.

"Hi, Amelia," Mack greeted, gratefully hugging back the affectionate little girl that she had been given the pleasure of watching grow up. "Look at what a big girl you are," she added, pretending to marvel at the girl's little to no height difference. But it certainly seemed to boost Amelia's self-esteem so she didn't object.

Mack and Brady's monthly visits allowed them to stay in contact with their friends from the 1960s very well, getting to watch everyone's relationships develop beyond what they saw on the movie screen back home. This included the numerous weddings that they had now attended and the many new arrivals to the beach that they had checked up on at every new visit. So Mack and Brady happened to be very well acquainted with their friends' children, and their friends' children were very well acquainted with them.

"Thank you," Amelia beamed, her candy pink wellington boots, which she stubbornly refused to take off, wrinkling the beach towel as she rocked forwards and backwards on the balls of her feet.

"Yeah," Brady chuckled. "You're practically a lady now," he said, stressing the 'lady' part to make the little girl let out a bashful giggle.

"Daddy," Amelia piped up a few seconds later, stomping over to her father with a now deadly serious expression, which proved to be rather comical on a three year old. "Can I have my flower back please?" she demanded, holding out her tiny palm expectantly.

"Why? Are you going to get be a different one?" Tanner asked curiously, slightly puzzled by his daughter's odd behaviour as he handed over the flower.

"No," Amelia said bluntly, making Mack, Brady and Lela let out stifles snorts of laughter. "I'm going to give it to Bwady," Amelia grinned mischievously, starting to laugh to herself as she stepped over to Brady and pressed the drooping daisy into his hands.

"Why?" Tanner asked, pretending to sound hurt to partake in the game that his daughter had turned this conversation into.

"Because Bwady's my boyfriend," Amelia grinned cheekily, stuffing her smile behind her hands as she started to giggle away to herself, treating the whole situation like a naughty joke.

Amelia had grown up being very fond of Brady, so much to the point that everyone had jokingly branded them a couple, which Brady had happily played along with. However, Amelia then started to believe that the joke was true and that Brady really was her boyfriend, which just made the situation even more hilarious for the grown ups. So now every time that Mack and Brady would visit, Amelia would barely leave the blonde surfer boy's side and Mack would pretend to be very jealous for the little girl's amusement. Brady had grown so used to this routine that he just accepted it now, fully prepared that every time he stepped into Wet Side Story he committed himself to humouring an adorable three year old.

"Well thank you, Amelia. It's very pretty," Brady said, admiring the squashed daisy as the little girl took a step towards him. "But it's not as pretty as you," he added, making Amelia squeal with laughter, which then triggered the four adults to start laughing too.

As Amelia began babbling to her little sister and with her parents occupied in a discussion about their options for dinner that night, Mack took this as an opportunity to talk to Brady.

"Do you think that we should tell them?" she whispered, leaning in to the blonde sat beside her so that their shoulders were just touching.

"What like right now?" Brady replied in a similar whispered-tone.

"Yeah, we might as well just say it."

"Ok, sure, what have we got to lose?"

"We've got nothing, Lela however might lose her mind," Mack quipped sarcastically, making Brady let out a quiet snigger as Mack cleared her throat. "Uh, Lela, Tanner," she piped up, catching the couple's attention almost immediately. Apparently their awareness increased as soon as they had children.

"We've got something to tell you," Brady continued, quickly glancing across at his wife as he picked up where Mack had left off.

"Um," Mack began, sudden pressure building on her as Lela and Tanner's innocent, yet expectant, stares piled weights on her shoulders. "Amelia and Lily are going to be getting a new friend to play with in a few months," she tried, attempting to be cryptic about it in hope that they'd work it out for themselves because, frankly it was still bizarre for her to actually say the exact words out loud.

"What?" Tanner asked, still bearing an uncanny resemblance to his younger movie-character self upon delivering one of his lines, unbeknownst to him.

"Are you implying that CheeChee's going to come home from her honeymoon knocked up? Because honestly, knowing her, I wouldn't be surprised," Lela said, referring to her fellow biker girl, who had recently jetted off on her two month overdue honeymoon with Tanner's best friend and her new husband: Seacat.

"Uh, no," Mack replied awkwardly, feeling her cheeks flushing red with embarrassment. Why couldn't she just say it? "Actually, I'm pregnant," she finally blurted, nervously watching the couple's faces for any sign of emotion. And although it took them a few seconds, their faces soon broke out into huge grins.

"Mack!" Lela screamed, practically throwing herself at the brunette from excitement. "Are you serious?!"

"Yeah," Mack chuckled, very relieved that Lela and Tanner were taking the news so well, although she'd have expected nothing less.

"This is amazing! I can't believe it! You're going to be such a good mom!" Lela twittered, the more enthusiastic she got the faster her voice went. "I can't believe you didn't tell us sooner! How long have you known?! How far along are you?!"

"I found out at around a month ago and now I'm three months far along," Mack explained, glad that she had finally just got it out of her system.

"Congratulations, guys," Tanner exclaimed, patting Brady on the back before the four of them all initiated a deep conversation about the ins and outs of parenting and pregnancy. Until they got some company.

This company started off however with a rather adorable face toddling over to the four young adults, a big toothy grin separating his two chubby cheeks and a patch of scruffy blonde hair covering his scalp.

"Hey, Harry, did you enjoy your walk?" Lela asked the toddler, who had a grey pebble trapped in his tiny fist.

The two year old obediently nodded before shouting, "Yeah!"

"It's his new favourite word," Butchy explained almost apologetically, walking up behind his son before lifting him up into his arms, where he proceeded to brush off his grubby white t-shirt. "He won't stop saying it."

"Hey, don't be sorry 'bout it, I think it's cute," Struts cooed, a few paces behind the Rodents leader as she finally came to a stop by the four beach towel residents. "I can't wait until Sophia can talk," she added, smiling and tapping the end of her own eight month old daughter's nose.

"Yous keeps sayin' that but when she does I bet she won't shut up," Lugnut joked, gently ruffling the minimal amount of chocolate brown hair on his daughter's head.

"Hey, it'll still be adorable," Struts snapped, adjusting her daughter's position as she balanced her on her hip.

"Hey Mack, hey Brady," Butchy finally said, now that his crew members had stopped talking he was taking his chance to greet his friends.

"Hi," Mack and Brady said in unison, both giving small waves to the three bikers.

"Is Giggles at home, Butchy?" Brady asked, trying to strike up a conversation for one, but he also was just genuinely curious about the absence of Butchy's heavily pregnant wife. Well, he thought that she was heavily pregnant.

"Yeah, she's lookin' after Ella," the biker boy explained. "She's still only a few days old."

"She's so adorable, you'll have to go round and see her," Lela piped up, apparently having already taken a shining to her new niece. "Especially since you're going to be having a newborn of your own soon," she added with a squeal, still completely overjoyed with the news that her best friend was having a baby.

"Wait, what?" Struts asked, her eyes lighting up as soon as she heard what she thought that she would.

And that's when Lela launched into the explanation.

Mack and Brady were definitely in for a wild ride now that the Wet Side Story crew knew about this baby. Maybe even a future biker of surfer would be arriving in six months time. Who knows?

 **I really hope that you enjoyed it! To make up for it being so late I tried to make it a little bit longer, I hope that's alright with you!**

 **So the Wet Side Story characters know now! Yay! Or oh no, I'll let you decide that for yourselves.**

 **Do you think that I should do a chapter where Mack and Brady tell their friends and family about the pregnancy or do you think that I should skip that part out? Please let me know because I don't want to spend time writing it out if it's going to be boring to read.**

 **Although this story is mainly focusing on Mack and Brady, I thought that I'd in some snippets of the other characters' lives too. Don't worry, they're not going to be major parts of the story, I just thought that it would be more realistic and a little bit of a change every now and again to hear about the some of the other couples too.**

 **I was going to put in my OC but I decided against it because I didn't think that she was needed and I didn't think that people would want her to be included, so I just rearranged the couples a little bit.**

 **I hope that you all like the couples that I chose and their children! Let me know if you have a favourite!**

 **I'm still looking for baby nicknames so please let me know if you have any suggestions!**

 **I think that's all for now though!**

 **Thank you for reading!**

 **-cherrygorilla**


	5. Cravings, Meltdowns & Movements, Oh My!

**Hello!**

 **So I guess that you guys didn't really like my last chapter. Oops. I had high hopes for that chapter because I really enjoyed writing about all of the Wet Side Story characters' children but apparently I'm the only one that liked it. XD**

 **Anyway, never mind, I don't have to include them much anymore. It's fine. :)**

 **And I'm sorry that I haven't posted another chapter of this story in so long, I thought that you'd lost interested in it because I didn't get any reviews at first on my last chapter (which is why I presumed that you didn't like it XD). But eventually I did get some feedback so here I am again! You guys spurred me on to write this chapter, so thank yourselves for the fact that I'm updating this.**

 **Enough of my rambling though, here's the chapter that you came here to read!**

Walking down the aisles of the grocery store was like being in heaven for Mack. Although she was refusing to admit it, she had been having what she could only describe as 'cravings' for the last week or so. Maybe now that the couple had come around to do their food shopping for the week she could roam free and grab everything that her heart, or rather the baby, desired.

"Are you sure that you're ok now?" Brady asked, picking up his pace a little so that he could walk beside his wife, who was currently scanning the shelves of powdered cake mixes.

"Yeah, of course, why wouldn't I be?" Mack replied whilst inspecting a brownie mix.

"Because you just had a meltdown in the parking lot," Brady said, his tone having a sarcastic edge to it but both of them knew that he wasn't joking at all. Mack had literally started bawling in the store's car park.

"Well I just felt so bad for those poor people," Mack said, trying to explain herself but beginning to well up again instead.

"Mack, it's alright, they're probably not bothered about it," Brady cut in, quickly intervening to prevent another outburst from his extremely hormonal wife.

"But it was such a big dent and it made the car look awful," Mack sniffled. "And can you imagine how much that's going to cost them to fix it?"

"Mack, you don't need to worry about it, it's not your car," Brady reassured her, prising her away from the brownie mix so that he could wrap her into a hug.

"That doesn't stop me from feeling bad about it though," Mack blubbered, resting her forehead against Brady's chest and just letting him hold her.

"It's ok, Mack," Brady said, gently rubbing her back to calm her down.

"I'm not though," Mack sighed, lifting her head up and looking up at Brady in despair. "I'm a mess."

"Well I wouldn't go as far as 'a mess' but maybe we should buy you some waterproof mascara," Brady chuckled, wiping away one of Mack's grey-stained tears before it rolled down her cheek.

"Oh god, I'm so embarrassing," Mack said, rummaging around in her purse for a tissue.

"Tell me about it," Brady teased, earning a light whack on the arm from his spouse.

"Stop, I can't help it," Mack whined, dumping her purse back into the trolley in frustration after being unable to locate a tissue. She then resorted to just dabbing at her eyes with her hands.

"Can you help you fashion choice then?" Brady asked sarcastically, poking fun at Mack to try to cheer her up.

"Hey, it's not my fault I don't fit into any of my clothes," Mack grumbled, crossing her arms over her chest defensively once she was done drying her eyes.

"You seriously can't fit into any of your clothes?" Brady chuckled in disbelief, finding this new fact quite entertaining.

"They just don't fit over this! It's awful!" Mack exclaimed, pointing at her still relatively small baby bump. Although it was still considered small, Mack's abdomen had expanded to the point where it no longer looked like she just had a bit of a muffin top, it was pretty clear that she was pregnant.

"Well it looks like we're going to have to stop off at the mall after this then," Brady said, smirking as Mack rolled her eyes.

"Good choice," Mack said sarcastically, even though she was actually looking forward to the imminent trip to the shopping centre. After her struggle to fit into the biggest pair of jeans that she owned this morning, the prospect of new, roomier clothes was amazing.

"Can we move on now? You've been looking at cupcake mixes for fifteen minutes," Brady said, a smile curling at his lips at Mack's ridiculous habits that she had picked up of late. Normally Brady was the one that was wanting to hang around in the cake aisle, but Mack's pregnancy was having a rather negative effect on her healthy eating regime. "At this rate the baby will have been born before we get out of the store."

"Oh shut up, I'm allowed to look aren't I?" Mack snapped, trying to hide her own smile that was tugging at the corners of her mouth.

"If you're craving brownies then why don't you buy fresh ones? You hardly seem like you're in the mood to be baking things," Brady pointed out, knowing Mack well enough to be aware of the fact that she didn't like baking when she was in the best of moods. So trying to do it whilst fifteen weeks pregnant wouldn't really be the smartest choice in his eyes.

"Good point," Mack said, practically throwing the brownie mix back onto the shelf and starting to march over to the bakery section. But then it hit her with what Brady had said. "Wait, how do you know that I've been craving things? I haven't told you, have I?"

"No but Mack, I live with you. Finding half-eaten grilled cheese sandwiches with honey mustard in a morning and then discovering that all of the apple juice has gone gave me a little bit of an indication," Brady chuckled, watching Mack's mouth fall open in shock.

"Well..." Mack started, but words failed her when it came to thinking of an excuse.

"Did you really think that you were going to be able to hide that from me, Mackenzie?" Brady asked in mock surprise, his tone dripping with sarcasm.

"I think the real question that you should be asking me is what type of brownies I want," Mack challenged, dodging Brady's question by bringing the focus of the conversation back to her, which is something that she very rarely did.

"Is that so?" Brady asked, raising one of his eyebrows and ever so slightly cocking his head to the side.

"It's what any good husband would do," Mack continued, laying down a gauntlet for the lanky blonde to accept.

"Well I've got a reputation to keep so we'd better get over to the bakery hadn't we?" Brady replied, accepting the challenge and managing to make Mack let out a small chuckle in the process.

Although Brady was now fully aware of his wife's pregnancy cravings, he didn't quite realise the severity of them until they reached the cash registers. In short, the couple left the store with eight different boxes of brownies. These cravings were no small feat.

* * *

Around two weeks later, which means that Mack was now seventeen weeks into her pregnancy, the couple were taking a well earned rest from their night routine that they had recently picked up. A warning of pregnancy at this time told the couple that Mack's sex drive would pick up a lot more and although Mack had convinced herself that that wouldn't happen and that it was just a myth, it had managed to become a rather prominent issue in their day to day life. Brady certainly wasn't complaining about it though. However, they did agree that they needed a night off from it, no matter how much Mack's hormones were protesting.

So whilst Brady was flicking through TV channels, trying to find something that they could watch to take their minds off the sexual tension that followed Mack around like a shadow, Mack was preparing a snack for herself. Normally her cravings would be limited to one thing at a time, which could be seen as convenient. However they were usually so strong that if she didn't have that food in her mouth within five minutes, she would feel like death and someone would probably have lost a limb. But her anger spouts were also courtesy of her raging hormones, which were still flying off the scale.

Tonight seemed to be an exception cravings wise though, because Mack was preparing a concoction of the sweetest and saltiest things that she could find in the house; neither of which she could usually stomach.

"What the hell is that?" Brady asked, his eyes practically popping out of his head as he watched Mack place her dish of food down on the coffee table.

"Food," Mack replied simply, obviously not seeing anything wrong with her combination of pickles and strawberry ice cream.

"Hardly," Brady shot back, his mouth slightly hanging open as he watched Mack flop down onto the sofa beside him.

"What are you talking about?" Mack asked, picking up the spoon and bowl before settling down next to her husband. "It's just ice cream."

"With pickles," Brady said, still gawping at Mack like she'd lost her mind.

"And?" Mack asked through a mouthful ice cream, instantly relishing in the satisfaction that it brought to her.

"Well apart from the fact that it's gross, you don't even like pickles," Brady replied, grimacing a little bit as he watched Mack's spoon delve back into the bowl for more.

"Apparently I do now," Mack said, lifting a pickle slice off the top of one of her ice cream scoops before dropping it into her mouth.

"Mack, you don't like pickles," Brady repeated, looking Mack straight in the face and trying to put some sense back into her. "Or strawberry ice cream," he added, eyeing the bowl in his wife's hands to make sure that he wasn't imagining it and that it actually was full of the food that she usually despised.

"Well apparently this baby does," Mack said, resting her bowl on top of her ever-growing bump before pointing at the same area.

"Nice shelf," Brady teased, getting sidetracked by Mack's new discovery that she could balance things on her stomach.

"Thanks," Mack replied, smiling down at her abdomen before picking up her bowl again. But then something made her stop.

Maybe it had been the weight of the bowl being lifted off her stomach that caused it to feel weird. Or maybe Brady had brushed it with his arm.

No, this felt like it was from inside her belly, and it wasn't just her stomach twisting because of sickness; that had ended weeks ago. This felt more like bubbles or a big butterfly flapping around, which only confused Mack more. But then it hit her what it actually was.

"Brady," she said quietly, too scared to adjust her position in case she missed it if it came again.

"Yeah?" Brady asked, his tone having the same concerned edge to it that it had picked up recently. Although he put that down to Mack, he never knew what she'd do next considering what a state she was in.

"I think I just felt the baby move," Mack said, turning her head to lock eye contact with her husband, who looked like you could knock him down with a feather.

"Seriously?" he asked, trying to let what Mack had told him sink in.

"Yeah," Mack breathed, her eye drifting back to her protruding stomach.

"You're sure?" Brady checked, not wanting to get his hopes up in case it just turned out to be gas (which Mack seemed to have a lot of lately).

"Pretty sure," Mack confirmed, focusing really hard to see if she could feel it again. "I mean, it wasn't like a kick but it definitely moved."

"That's so cool," Brady marvelled, trusting his wife enough to believe her that it was actually the baby this time. "Looks like Grape's trying to tell us something."

"Yeah, that he or she doesn't want to watch Desperate Housewives," Mack said sarcastically, making Brady chuckle as he flipped over the channel. "Speaking of 'he or she', what are we going to do at the anatomy scan on Saturday?" Mack asked, bringing up something that she'd been meaning to talk to her husband about for a while.

"Well I'm cool with whatever, I don't mind waiting if you want-" Brady started, but as he glanced across to Mack he saw how disappointed she looked upon him mentioning the term 'waiting'. Knowing Mack, she would want to know everything in advance to make it easier to plan out. She just felt more comfortable if she was aware of what was happening before it actually happened. And if that's what made her happiest then that's what he would do. "You want to find out, don't you?"

"Well..." Mack trailed off, digging her spoon into one of her ice cream scoops as she avoiding eye contact with the blonde. Although she was hoping that he would say one that he wanted to wait, she didn't want to feel like she was swaying his decision. This was his kid too, remember?

"Mack, I'm down for finding out," Brady reassured her, making the brunette lift her gaze to meet his.

"You are?" Mack questioned, not sure if she fully believed him yet.

"Of course, at least that way we can stop referring to Grape as 'he or she' all the time," Brady chuckled before leaning in closer to Mack, just enough to make their shoulders touch. "Plus, I know how much it means to you to find out. You've been wanting to do it as soon as we found out, you little control freak," he teased, smiling as Mack faked a gasp.

"Hey, I'm not a control freak," she said, pretending to frown at her husband before eventually caving. "Ok, not _much_ of a control freak, but that's as far as I'm going."

"Well I, for one, am glad you're a control freak," Brady said, smiling at the brunette as she pushed a stray strand of hair away from her face.

"You are?" Mack asked, dipping one of her eyebrows as she gave Brady a puzzled look.

"Of course, it's what makes you you. And I wouldn't have you any other way," he said, meaning every words as he leant in and planted a kiss on his wife's lips. He had no doubt in his mind at that moment that he'd made the right decision to marry the girl sat beside him. He really felt like they were meant to be.

 **I hope that you enjoyed it!**

 **I know that this chapter was just a mash up of a lot of different things but hopefully it was fluffy enough to satisfy your Brack needs. ;) Oh who am I kidding? I'm really bad at writing for Mack and Brady, let alone writing cute fluff about them. I don't know why you think this story is so good. XD**

 **So like I said in this chapter, they will be finding out the gender of the baby in the next chapter. Now, I had been thinking about making them not find out the baby's sex but I just thought that it would be cuter if they found out. That way I can write chapters for them theming the nursery and buying clothes and picking out names and stuff (if you have any other ideas for chapters then please let me know! I'm running out!).**

 **But, although I have an idea of what I would like the gender to be, I'm not the one having to read the story, you are. (I just have to write it!) So to get you as involved in this story as possible, I want you to let me know what you think that the baby's gender should be. Please don't leave it out of your review because I want as many opinions as possible so that I don't just end up with one of each. Because if that happens then I'll probably have to go with my decision and that would no doubt leave people unhappy. So please, please, please review! You don't need to have an account to review so don't let that hold you back from giving your opinion. I need as many as possible because after I've made the decision, there's no going back!**

 **I think that's all for now though, thank you so much for reading! I'll put the next chapter up as soon as I can after getting five reviews!**

 **-cherrygorilla**


	6. Team Boy or Team Girl

**Hello!**

 **Sorry it took me so long to write this, I've had a really busy week and I haven't had much time to write. I was also holding off a little bit until I had a clear winner on the gender debate because I didn't want to just base the choice on my opinion. So I did wait a few days before getting started on it. I hope that you don't mind too much though,** **at least it's here now!** **I hope** **that you like it!**

On a Friday evening all Mack wanted to do, now that she was 18 weeks pregnant, was walk through the front door, dump her things down beside said front door and then camp out on the couch for the next two days. Even the thought of her old routine of walks to the beach or bike rides or any outdoor activity really, made her tired. She had no idea the process of forming a human being could be so draining.

However, this particular Friday afternoon, no sooner had she stepped through the front door when Brady ambushed her with a rather peculiar question.

"Hey Mack, could you pee in this, please?" The only sign of him acknowledging his wife, other than saying her name, was a brief glance up from his phone screen as he held out a plastic cup to her.

"You want me to what?" Mack asked, staring at her oblivious husband like he had three heads.

"Pee in a cup," Brady repeated, his eyes still scanning over his phone screen as he spoke.

"Why?" Mack demanded, almost certain that the blonde had lost his mind.

"You'll find out," he said with a smirk before turning on his heels and walking back towards the kitchen.

"Brady, I don't-"

"Just do it, Mack," Brady called, already disappearing into the other room. "Please," he added, poking his head around the door frame and adding a smile to sweeten the deal.

Mack stared at the cup that had been pressed into her palms with a puzzled expression. What on earth was Brady thinking now? However, she decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and a few minutes later placed the container of urine on the kitchen counter top.

"There, are you happy now?" Mack asked, her tone ever so slightly patronising as a result of her annoyance. Couldn't Brady have just let her relax after work?

"Very," was all Brady replied with as a smile lingered at his lips.

"What's all this stuff for?" Mack only just seemed to notice that the rest of the kitchen counter was cluttered with various random objects. Red cabbage, keys and baking soda weren't typically the things that Mack just had lying around the house, so what on earth was Brady planning?

"Well since you didn't believe me when I said I wanted to find out if Grape was a girl or a boy," Brady started.

"I still don't believe you," Mack cut in, watching Brady intently to see if she could see him crack in anyway and reveal that he did in fact want to wait. But no fracture showed.

"And that's why I'm doing this," Brady said, a mischievous smile curling at his lips before he launched into the explanation for his madness. "I looked up a bunch of at-home tests to find out the baby's gender and got everything we needed for them. That way we can see if what we found out today is right when we go to the scan tomorrow."

Brady seemed pretty satisfied with his answer, but Mack, on the other hand, still thought that the idea was ludicrous.

"Brady, none of these tests are going to work. You do realise that, don't you?" Mack crossed her arms over her chest, raising one of her eyebrows at the blonde in front of her.

"That doesn't mean we can't try them. Mack, it's a bit of fun to get us excited for tomorrow," Brady confessed, wishing that Mack wouldn't be so critical. "I know they're not going to work, I'm not a complete idiot."

"I know, you're just a little one," Mack chuckled, ruffling Brady's hair a little and planting a kiss on his cheek. Who cares if these tests didn't work? Brady was right, it would just be a bit of fun. And fun is really what Mack needed right now. "What are we doing first then?"

"Show me your hands," Brady ordered.

Mack thought that this was a precaution to check before they got started with the tests, but apparently it was the first one. She obeyed and held her hands out in front of her with her palms facing the ceiling.

Brady noted what Mack had done before referring back to his phone. "It says here that if you present your hands with your palms up then the baby should be a girl," Brady recited, holding one of Mack's wrists with one hand and scrolling through the article on his phone with the other.

"Wait, that's one of the tests?"

"Yeah," Brady chuckled, finding Mack's shock rather comical. "What did you think that they were going to be?"

"Not that," Mack said, still rather puzzled about how showing her hands could determine the gender of her baby. But she wasn't going to start judging yet. "Ok, so that's one point for Team Girl," she continued, milling over the idea of having a daughter as she spoke. Now that Brady had said it, she couldn't seem to get the thought out of her head. "What's the next one?"

"Pick up that key," Brady said, motioning to the house key that he had placed on the kitchen counter in front of Mack.

Once again, Mack obeyed. But it didn't have the right outcome.

"Which end did you grab it from?" Brady asked, eyeing the key in Mack's hand suspiciously.

"I don't know, I just grabbed it from the middle."

"You were supposed to grab it from one of the ends."

"What does it mean if I grab it from the middle then?"

"That you don't like to play by the rules and we're having a dog baby," Brady said, his voice dripping with sarcasm as he watched Mack roll her eyes.

"Don't make me take back what I said about you only being a little stupid," Mack warned. But she did as she was asked and replaced the key. Once she picked it up again though, it had a rather bizarre outcome.

"Which end did you pick it up by?" Brady asked with yet another quick glance up from his phone screen.

"The top part."

"Oh."

"Oh? What do you mean 'oh'?" Mack asked, growing suspicious as she watched Brady's eyebrows furrow.

"Well apparently if you pick it up by the top then you're carrying a boy."

"I thought you just said it was a girl though."

"Well I guess that we've got proof that these things don't work then," Brady sighed, shutting off his phone and tossing it onto the kitchen counter in defeat.

"Hey, we already knew that much," Mack said with a smile, placing the key down and taking Brady's hands in hers. "I thought this was just for fun. Stop being such a killjoy."

"Me? A killjoy?" Brady asked, aghast.

"Do you need to lie down?" Mack teased, playing along with him and pressing the back of her hand to his forehead.

"Definitely," Brady said sarcastically, gently batting Mack's hand away.

"What's our next test then?" Mack asked, starting to get more enthusiastic about this activity the further into it she got. "Or are you too distraught to continue?" she teased, raising one of her eyebrows as she stared down the blonde.

"No, I'm perfectly fine, thank you very much," Brady replied with a smirk. "Now, show me your boobs."

"What?" Mack's eyes could have popped out of her head.

"Show me your boobs."

"You're kidding, right?"

"I'm serious."

"This had better be for one of those test things or else you're in big trouble, Mr."

"Oh trust me, this is strictly for science," Brady chuckled, ignoring his wife's warnings and unimpressed looks as she toyed with the hemline of her blouse.

Mack looked over her shoulder, still checking that no one was around even though they were alone in their own house. Her eyes flicked to the window to make sure that their grumpy neighbours weren't in their kitchen too because God help them if they were. Luckily, all she saw was darkness and a rather sad looking flower in a pot on their windowsill. So, with a sigh she lifted up her top, turning her head to avoid eye contact with her spouse as he eyed up her knockers. Barely three seconds had passed before she yanked the fabric back over her bra and hugged her arms protectively around her midriff. "Ok, that's enough now."

"This doesn't make sense, yours aren't wonky," Brady mused, his brows knitted together.

"As they shouldn't be," Mack hurled back, taking on a defensive tone as she pulled her shirt around her even more.

"Well...maybe your left one looks a little bigger, but I'm probably just making that up because I'm biased," Brady mumbled, his voice trailing off towards the end of the sentence.

Mack's ears pricked up at this. It was the first time she was hearing that Brady had a preference on the baby's gender. So as his back was turned, she stole a look at his phone screen.

'If the left breast looks bigger, the baby is more likely to be a girl.'

A girl? Brady wanted a girl? Mack's original expectations had been the opposite but no, her husband was a big softie really. A big softie who just wanted a little girl to treat like a princess.

"So we're going for 'girl' with that one?" Mack checked, nonchalantly slipping in the answer that she'd looked up.

"Yeah, I guess," Brady said absentmindedly, not paying enough attention to realise that Mack had just figured out what he had said previously.

"Well that's two for Team Girl and one for Team Boy," Mack announced, trying to keep track of the scoring as best as she could.

"Let's see if this one changes anything then," Brady said, tipping some baking soda into a cup. "Can you pour about half of your pee cup into there, please?"

"Finally, this actually has a use," Mack said sarcastically, faking relief as she dumped half of the yellowish fluid into the cup of baking soda. She waited for a few seconds whilst Brady prepared something over at the stove. She waited some more. And she waited again, but nothing happened. "Brady, is it supposed to do something?" she asked gently, hesitantly peeking into the cup, only to be faced with a slightly soggy pile of bicarbonate of soda.

"Not exactly," Brady replied, stepping away from the stove to peer at the cup himself. "If it doesn't then that means it's a girl...I think."

"It looks pretty promising for Team Girl then," Mack said, a small grin tugging at her lips as she watched Brady's efforts to hide his smile.

"This next one might be the game-changer though," Brady said, ladling boiled red cabbage out of a pan. "While I get it ready though, I think there's something else on there about cravings affecting the gender," he continued, prompting Mack to pick up his phone and start searching.

"Oh yeah, here it is," Mack said, her chocolate brown eyes locking on the snippet of text on the screen. "Do you think that I've been craving salty or sweet things though?"

"Is there an option for both?" Brady teased, making Mack roll her eyes.

"No."

"Well, judging by the entire jar of pickles you stuffed your face with last night, I'm gonna go with salty," Brady said, his tone sarcastic but his words speaking nothing but the truth.

"Salty cravings indicates a boy though," Mack said with a frown, slightly disgruntled that the outcomes kept fluctuating.

"Maybe this will give us a definite answer then," Brady suggested, grabbing the cup with the remainder of Mack's pee in it and taking it over to the stove. "If the water turns pink when I add this, we're having a girl. But if it doesn't change, we're having a boy."

Brady took out some of the water from the boiled red cabbage pan and placed it in a glass so that the couple could both clearly see it. He tipped in the urine and they waited. And waited. And waited.

Nothing happened.

"Well, I guess that means it's a boy then," Brady sighed, straightening up before tipping the liquid into the sink. "Which gender got the most results then?" he asked, hoping that his plan actually had produced an outcome.

But after a quick mental recount, Mack came up with a dead-end answer. "Neither, they both got three results."

"Oh great," Brady huffed sarcastically.

"Hey, neither of us expected them to work," Mack said, trying to cheer the blonde up a bit. She didn't like to see him upset, although this was a pretty small defeat in reality. "It's certainly made me more excited to find out though, so you succeeded in that one," she added, leaning up to plant another kiss on her husband's cheek.

"Me too," Brady agreed, a smile slowly broadening on his face as he slipped his arm around the brunette's waist.

Mack nuzzled her head into the crook of Brady's neck and softly kissed his collar bone as he carefully ran his fingers through her hair.

"I can't wait," Brady mumbled with a smile, toying with the idea of having a boy or a girl in his head for the rest of the evening and the whole morning of the next day. That is, until the moment finally came.

* * *

"Ok, let's have a look at this baby then," Dr Morris said as an eager smile sprung onto her face. She took out a bottle of translucent, turquoise gel and squeezed it onto Mack's protruding stomach.

The expectant mother tried her hardest not to flinch at the coldness of the gel but judging from the way that Brady was quietly chuckling away to himself beside her, she obviously had.

Dr Morris put a thick, plastic, wand-like device on top of the gel and started to move it around. Her eyes stayed firmly on the screen as she tapped various buttons with one hand and slowly moved the plastic wand around with the other. "So do you two want to find out the baby's gender?" the doctor asked, pulling her eyes away from the screen to look at the couple.

"Yes," Mack and Brady said in unison, sharing a knowing smile almost immediately afterwards.

"Oh good, this is always the fun part," Dr Morris laughed, an excited grin jumping onto her face and making her eyes light up. "I just wanted to check though in case I let anything slip and you didn't want to know. You never know with me."

"No it's fine, we're looking forward to finding out anyway," Mack reassured with a smile. She couldn't have been more pleased to be paired with such a laid back doctor, she was great. The last thing that Mack wanted was a stuck up, cranky, old woman lacking a sense of humour or any sympathy at all. Dr Morris really was ideal.

"Me too, you'll have to keep me filled in with everything that you're planning once you find out," Dr Morris said, gently flicking her head to move a stray strand of her short, brown hair away from her face.

"Don't worry, we will," Brady chuckled, his eyes flitting to the floor in anticipation, wishing that she'd just put him out of his misery and say the gender already. Although he loved the fact that their doctor was so down to earth with them and that she genuinely cared about their lives outside of the clinic, he kind of just wanted her to get to the point. The waiting was killing him.

"Well, I'm not seeing anything there," Dr Morris mumbled to herself as Brady moved his hand up and slipped it into Mack's, causing her to look up at him and smile. "Alright, you ready to know?"

Mack and Brady nodded, each taking in a breath.

This was it. This was when they found out.

It would either be their first daughter or their first son.

A boy or a girl.

Pink or blue.

A prince or a princess.

No matter what it turned out to be though, both Mack and Brady knew that they would be loved no matter what.

But without a doubt, this answer would change their lives forever.

Were they ready for that?

You could hear the low buzzing of the ultrasound machine in the silence. No one dared to breathe, let alone speak.

Brady had Mack's hand in a vice grip and Mack was pretty sure that if Brady let go of her hand it would just start shaking like a leaf.

Why were they so terrified? This was supposed to be excitingly. Or perhaps it was just nerves, this was a huge deal after all.

And then the three words came...

"It's a girl."

 **I really hope that you enjoyed it!**

 **So yes, the baby is going to be a girl! That's what got the most votes and one of the two opinions that thought it should be a boy was mine. XD So it was quite a clear winner there.**

 **Thank you so much for your lovely reviews last chapter, every bit of feedback I get means the world to me. I love to hear what you think of each chapter!**

 **I think that's all for now though. I've got a pretty fun idea for the next chapter so I'll get started with that one as soon as I can!**

 **Thank you for reading!**

 **-cherrygorilla**


	7. Practice Parents

**Hello!**

 **I know that it's been a super log time since I last updated this but I haven't had any time to write it. With exams and events at school, along with my focus being set on finishing Surf, Sun, Sand and starting my Christmas story, this one hasn't really been my main priority. I really hope that you understand and you're not too mad at me, I'm trying my best to juggle everything and make it work. Hopefully this chapter makes up for my absence! Warning: I do use like one swear word in this chapter but I was just trying to make it seem like a believable situation. I related this story as a T for a reason so I hope that you don't mind one or two bad words here and there, don't worry they're not going to be a frequent thing. :)**

"Remind we again why we thought that taking care of five kids was a good idea," Brady said, wrestling little two year old Harry away from the front door that he had tried to run out of four times already.

"I just felt bad for Lela and the others, they all really needed a break. I mean, did you see Giggles?" Mack replied, bouncing the blonde surfer girl's two month old daughter on her knees to stop her from winging.

When Butchy and his wife had shown up at Lela's house (which is where Mack and Brady were staying for the night) to drop of their two kids, he literally had to hold Giggles' head up with his shoulder. She well and truly looked exhausted as she guiltily praised the two children away from her, but she still tried to muster a smile for the soon-to-be parents. Giggles might not be the constantly energetic, bubbly, fun-loving surfer girl they first met anymore, but that side of her wasn't completely gone, it was still there somewhere. The three hours of sleep that she was living on however seemed to be draining it out of her though.

"Plus we need this practice, our little girl is going to arrive in four to five months and God help me if we are not prepared for it," Mack continued, snapping a little bit at the end in frustration as Ella's winging had turned into full blown crying, which quickly progressed into screaming.

And this screaming is what caused Lela's almost four year old daughter to come stomping into the living room with her hands pressed over her ears and a firm frown etched onto her face. "That little person is too noisy," she complained, looking at her cousin in disapproval. "Make it stop," she ordered Brady, turning to look up at him so quickly that the plastic crown she had balanced on her head slipped off and clattered to the floor.

"I think that's what Mack's trying to do," Brady explained gently, setting Harry down on the floor and trying to steer him into the playroom, where Lela and Tanner's other daughter and Struts and Lugnut's little girl were both quietly sat babbling to themselves. If only the other three kids could be as easily amused.

"Why don't you take Harry and Amelia into the playroom while I settle Ella down," Mack suggested in between her shushes to the two month old in her arms.

"Ok, come on you two," Brady said, giving up on trying to make Harry walk into the room and just deciding to pick him up instead. So with Harry on one arm and Amelia clinging onto his leg, he hobbled his way into the room next door.

* * *

After twenty exhausting minutes of keeping the four kids in the playroom entertained, Brady went to go and check on Mack, who still hadn't managed to get Ella to quieten down.

"Why won't you stop crying?" Mack murmured, her brows furrowed as she gently rocked the baby girl in her arms.

"Do you want me to take over?" Brady asked wearily, stifling a yawn as he lumbered over to Mack.

"No, it's fine," she lied, moving Ella so that she was draped over her shoulder and she was able to wind her. But the change of position released a rather bizarre odour. Mack cautiously sniffed the air around the baby girl's backside before scrunching up her nose. "Looks like you need another diaper change," she concluded, getting up from the couch to kneel on the floor and break out the nappy bag and changing mat.

"Again?" Brady asked in disbelief, one of his eyebrows practically touching the ceiling as he stared at the wailing two month old. "How is it possible for something so small to make so much poop?"

"That's a very good question," Mack sighed, starting to unbutton Ella's onesie when another child's cries accompanied the infant's.

"I'll handle it," Brady huffed, dragging his feet as he plodded back into the playroom and comforted Sophia after she'd banged her head on the corner of the door.

It turns out that Brady's rescue act was a lot more interesting than he'd anticipated because he spent the next quarter of an hour playing 'doctors' with a very enthusiastic Amelia and the others who, despite Amelia's coaxing, weren't quite as excited about the game as she was.

* * *

Mack finally got Ella to doze off and wandered into the playroom to find Brady pretending to put a plaster on Lily's nose, which had the little girl in fits of laughter. Her giggles seemed to be infectious though because Mack found herself softly laughing at Brady's breathless chuckles that slipped out of his mouth upon hearing Lela and Tanner's daughter's laugh if her own.

Mack's laugh happened to catch Brady's attention though because it was merely seconds until his gaze rose to meet hers. "Hey, you managed to get Ella to sleep?"

"Yeah, it took some trying but she's finally down in her cot," Mack sighed, running a hand through her tangle of loose, chestnut brown curls.

"Care to join us?" Brady asked, referring to the group of babbling toddlers that were populating the room. "We're playing a very interesting game of doctors," he added sarcastically, hoping that this mere fact was enough to change her mind.

"I think I've had enough doctor's appointments lately," Mack replied. Although she did take a few steps further into the room.

"Oh come on, you can't possibly resist this," Brady teased as Lily tried to stand up, pulling herself up on Brady's hair, much to his irritation. "Then again, maybe you can."

"Excuse me," Amelia piped up, marching over to Mack and tugging on the hem of her t-shirt.

"Yes?" Mack said, acknowledging the girl's presence by bending down a bit to reach her level.

"You look ill, you're tummy's all swollen. I'm going to take care of you until you're better," Amelia informed, wrapping her admittedly much smaller hand as best as she could around Mack's before leading her over to a space on the carpet a few meters away from Brady. Little did she know that Mack's stomach was sticking out more than usual for a rather important reason, a reason that Mack was quite excited about. But then again, she is only three, she still can't wrap her head around that fact yet.

"She's very good as a doctor, I'd highly recommend her," Brady announced, playing along with Amelia's game, much to her joy and to Mack's amusement.

"Yes, yes I am," Amelia murmured to herself as she rummaged around in her toy box for things to use as medical utensils.

Mack tried to stifle a laugh but didn't carry it out too successfully and ended up spluttering out some kind of snort at the little girl's behaviour. Children don't care what other people think. They say and do anything. And just watching them muddle through their day to day life was enough to keep Mack and Brady entertained for hours. Which was a good thing really considering that that was what their lives would be filled with in no time at all.

* * *

Another hour of bandages, fake injections, doses of medicine being handed out and a final analysis from Doctor Amelia herself, it was time for Mack and Brady (now back to full health thanks to their visit to the 'hospical' as Harry called it) had to face the tiresome task of putting the four children to bed.

Since the kids were all staying at Lela and Tanner's house while their parents were on a much needed night out, they just had to go to sleep on the sofa-bed in the playroom. So Mack and Brady wrestled all of them into their pyjamas, some being more cooperative than others. And then Brady took Amelia and Harry upstairs to brush their teeth, while Mack got the other two girls (who didn't really have enough teeth to brush yet) settled at one side of the sofa bed; a task which had seemed rather simple until Harry and Amelia came bounding back into the room and disturbed the little ones again. To calm them down the best solution seemed to be a bedtime story, much to the children's excitement. The first story was read by Mack, but the children were still bouncing off the walls by the time that Mack had announced 'The End'. So Brady took a turn to read a different story, and although the kids had calmed down a bit, they were still wide awake.

Four bedtime stories later, Mack and Brady were struggling to stay awake themselves, so it was a relief to look across and see four small sets of eyes closed. They shared a triumphant, heavily relieved smile and eased themselves off the creaky, fold-up sofa/bed, praying that the noise wouldn't wake the children again. When they were in the clear, they gently shut the door, leaving a tiny gap so that they would hear if any of them woke up but closed it enough to ensure that they wouldn't disturb them by talking.

The couple slid into chairs at the kitchen table and put their heads in their hands.

"I never thought they'd fall asleep," Mack mumbled, rubbing her eyes in exhaustion.

"I know, I still don't know how we managed it," Brady agreed, a hint at a chuckle breaking through his undeniable weariness.

"Holy crap," Mack breathed, crossing her arms over the table and letting her forehead fall forwards onto them.

"What now?"

"We're going to have our own one in a few months," Mack continued, her voice just ending over a whisper as she lifted her head.

"Our own what?" Brady asked, still too tired to fully understand what his wife was talking about.

"Our own kid," she finished, biting down on her lip so hard that the skin started to splinter.

"Yeah," was all that Brady could find to say. His mouth was pressed behind his hand, which were both balled up into little fists that were reaching towards the ceiling.

"I've had nineteen weeks to come to terms with that and it still doesn't feel real," Mack confessed, staring straight ahead but not focusing on a thing.

"I know, and in another nineteen we might have a little girl to take care of," Brady said, internally smiling, even if his lips were too stubborn to show it.

"That's if she comes early," Mack said, before breaking out of her zoned out, sleep deprived haze to direct her speech to her stomach. "Please don't come early, we're not ready for you yet."

"She's an independent woman, Mack. She can make her own decisions," Brady teased, poking fun at Mack's heavy belief in female empowerment.

"You don't have to tell me twice, this little girl is going to grow up with the mentality that she can achieve anything that she wants to, I'm going to make sure of it," Mack announced, making a promise to herself to carry out everything that she had just said, even if it had skilled out of her mouth when she was so exhausted that she could barley keep her head up.

"I don't doubt that for a second," Brady chuckled sleepily, leaning across to peck his wife on the cheek.

Mack's eyes slid shut as her head rested on the palm of her hand, a small smile curling at her lips as she drifted off to sleep, too tired to bother to move. Barely a minute later, Brady joined her.

But no sooner had they fallen asleep, an ear-splitting cry ripped through the house.

Mack was jolted awake so quickly that her head slipped off her hand and she ended up smacking it on the kitchen table in front of her. The noise created from Mack hitting her head woke Brady up too, who let out a groan upon being roused.

"We just got her to settle down," Brady moaned, rubbing his eyes and pushing himself out of the kitchen chair as he began to lumber over to Ella's travel crib in the living room.

"I'll get her," Mack sighed, standing up to tend to the two month old.

"No, it's fine," Brady replied, cautiously picking up the screaming baby from the crib. "You go and check on the others and make sure they haven't woken up too."

"Ok," Mack yawned, shuffling into the playroom to settle down Sophia, who was the only one that had started to stir from the crying.

Once she heard the four children's soft, steady snores though, she relaxed again and collapsed into the squashy, leather arm chair in the corner. This whole 'parenting practice' thing had been both a success and a failure. But at least now she knew what things that she could cope with and what things that she and Brady would be phoning her in-laws about every five minutes. Surely they would adjust to life as a parent when their little girl actually arrived though, right? They totally had this covered...not.

 **I hope that you enjoyed it! I know that it involved the Wet Side Story characters' children (which I know aren't too popular) but I really wanted to do a chapter about Mack and Brady babysitting and I didn't want to bring in any other kids with different names to confuse things even more. I hope that you don't mind too much!**

 **Also, I think that now it's sort of getting to halfway in the pregnancy, names need to be being considered. I'll be bringing up a few ideas over the next few chapters so if you could leave any suggestions then that would be much appreciated!**

 **I'll try to get the next chapter done as quickly as possible but I can't promise anything because it's getting close to Christmas now and I'm really busy! Plus, like I said before, this story isn't really my main priority, which is why it's kind of been pushed back a pit. I'll still try my best to get it done though, I promise!**

 **Anyway, thank you so much for reading, don't forget to review!**

 **-cherrygorilla**


	8. Tiny

**Wow, I bet you didn't think you'd ever see me back here with this story. But, miracles happen so here I am.**

 **I know that I abandoned this story for absolutely ages but I finally got some motivation to write for it again. Don't ask me how, I just kind of felt the urge to write something. And this was the result.**

 **So here you go! I apologise if it kind of sucks, I'm kind of out of practise for writing for this story.**

"Right, that's it, I'm taking the day off too," Brady said, standing up from the bed, grabbing his phone and walking towards the door.

"Brady, no," Mack whined, burying her tear-stained face into a pillow.

"I can't leave you like this, Mack."

"I'm fine!" Mack lied, her frustration making the comment come out almost like a scream.

But Mack got no real response to that from her husband because one of his colleagues picked up the phone on the other end of the line and he started mumbling away to him in the hallway.

The reason this whole fiasco was happening was because Mack was having a very bad, very emotional day. And it was only 7:30am. Her quite significantly expanded abdomen had been giving her no end of problems lately and it had proved no different today. It had just been so painful that she couldn't help but burst into tears a mere twenty seconds after waking up and no matter how much he'd tried, Brady had yet to be able to console her.

There was no way that Mack could have gone into work in the state that she was in, so Brady had taken it upon himself to call in sick for her. And now, since she showed no signs of calming down, he was taking the day off too.

When Brady reentered the room and saw Mack's shoulders shaking as she sobbed into his pillow he actually felt his heart breaking. He hated feeling this helpless.

"Come on," he said quietly, sliding onto the bed beside Mack and gathering her up in his arms. "I know it's hard," he said, holding her to his chest as she tried to steady her breaths.

"I'm sorry for being like this," Mack choked out between gasps.

"You don't need to be sorry."

"I don't know what's wrong with me," Mack continued, completely disregarding Brady's comment.

"What's wrong is that you're growing a little human and your body's having a little freak out about it," Brady softly chuckled, which pulled a small smile onto Mack's tear-stained face. He gently swiped his thumb across her cheek, making the tracks left by her tears disappear.

"I feel like crap," Mack murmured, half-burying her face into Brady's soft, old, worn out t-shirt.

"You just need to take your mind off it," Brady said. He didn't know if this actually would help, he just couldn't bare to see Mack like she was.

"By doing what?"

"Well now that we've got the time, some online shopping for the little one that's causing you so much bother might be a start," Brady said, gently poking Mack's tummy before reaching for his laptop.

"Oh it's not her fault," Mack started, defensively cradling her little bump, until she realised that the only reason she was feeling this way was because she was pregnant. "Actually it's all her fault."

"You hear that, Grape? I don't think you're mom's very happy with you."

"I'm not very happy in general," Mack sulked.

"Grape, your mom's being grumpy," Brady said jokingly, like a kindergartener would tell a teacher on a kid who'd kicked sand at them in the sandbox.

But because of the rather childish conversation that the couple were having with the baby, it decided to join in and raise its own opinion in the form of giving Mack a swift kick to the stomach.

"Hey, Brady, she can hear you, you know!" Mack snapped, flinching at their little girl's response.

"Good, I need to get her on my side as quickly as possible so that we can gang up on you," Brady chuckled as Mack rolled her eyes.

"Oh shut up, I'm not in the mood for this," she said, even though she had cracked a small smile.

"It is taking your mind off things though, isn't it?" Brady smirked.

"Maybe," Mack reluctantly admitted. "It would help even more if this little lady stopped kicking me though," she snapped as she felt another two kicks to her abdomen.

"Grape's just practicing her swimming," Brady joked. "Leave her alone."

"Stop calling her that! It's not her name!"

"Well until we have an alternative I guess we have no choice."

"Oh great, yet another thing to add to the list of things that we don't have yet."

"Don't worry, that list is going to get a whole lot shorter in a minute," Brady said whilst opening the browser on his laptop.

"I hate internet shopping. Why do you think that this is gonna-"

But Mack was cut off when the pair let out a collective gasp. Brady had simply clicked on the first website that came up under the search title 'newborn baby girl clothes' and already they were both overwhelmed by the tiniest thing.

"Oh my god look how cute that is!"

"Look at the little bear on it!"

After squealing over one tiny onesie for too many minutes, the pair managed to calm themselves down.

"Mack, we've got to buy that," Brady said. "Think of how cute she'd look in it."

"And how would you know? We don't know what she looks like yet," Mack replied.

"Mack, anybody would look adorable in that. I'd look adorable in that!"

"I'm sure you would," Mack said sarcastically after letting out a snort of laughter. "Ok fine, put it in the cart."

"Oh my god, we're going to get so carried away," Brady chuckled as he clicked on the next item and fell in love all over again. "Wait look at the little flowers on this one!"

"Aww, that's cute."

"They all look so tiny."

"Well she's going to be tiny, isn't she?" Mack chuckled. "Hey what about that one?" she then asked, pointing out another little onesie for Brady to click on. Yet again they both let out a gasp when it popped up on the screen. "Ah, look at the little whale on it!" Mack squealed.

"Ok we're definitely buying that," Brady announced.

"Look, it's got a little matching hat with a tail on!" Mack added, which sent them spiralling down a whole new path of freaking out.

Hours later they were just about finishing their major shopping spree. Tiny hats were definitely their favourite thing to buy, which is why they couldn't seem to resist purchasing at least eight. But then again every time they saw a onesie with a little pink animal on it they pretty much had a fit. Their favourite outfit though was the little onesie with a bear on it that they saw first, for two reasons. One: it was the first outfit they had actually seen and had pictured their own little girl in, which kind of gave it sentimental value. And two: because they found a matching hat for it with little ears on that made Mack choke on her cereal when she saw it.

Not only had they been buying things for Grape to wear, they were also buying things to decorate her nursery with. Her nursery that still had yet to be allocated, cleared out, painted and furnished. Boy did they have their work cut out for them.

"She's gonna be so cute," Mack smiled as she laid a hand on her bump.

"Well duh, she's got our genes. How could she not be cute?" Brady joked, making Mack let out a laugh.

"Aww, Brady I wanna see her."

"Well I hate to break it to you but we've got to wait a few more months before that."

"I know," Mack sighed. "I'm over halfway there though," she added with a small grin.

And in reply to this, as he was shutting down his laptop, Brady started quietly singing the chorus to Living on a Prayer, which Mack joined in with after letting out another snort of laughter.

"You're so stupid," Mack chuckled.

"Thank you, I've worked really hard to get this good so it's nice for my talents to be recognised," Brady said sarcastically as he rolled onto his side to face Mack.

Mack leaned in and placed her lips on Brady's as she let out a contented sigh. With each second the kiss deepened until it came to a rather abrupt stop. "Ugh, way to kill the mood. You've got that stupid Bon Jovi song in my head," Mack groaned as Brady, who was half laying on top of her start to laugh.

"Hey at least it fits, we are halfway through making a baby."

"First of all, 'we'? I don't see you doing any work."

"I've done my part, now I just need to make sure that you're happy when you're doing yours."

"Is that so?" Mack asked, raising one of her eyebrows.

"Yeah, I know I was happy doing my part so I think that the feeling should be mutual," Brady smirked.

"Oh shut up," Mack said, rolling her eyes.

"I'll try my best but I can't promise anything," Brady shot back with a cheeky grin.

"And second of all we're _over_ halfway," Mack continued, trying her best to ignore her husband's childish behaviour.

"Not if she's overdue."

"She is not going to be overdue," Mack said, horrified at the thought.

"You hear that, Grape? Your mom needs you to be precise with your timing. If you don't come out on your due date she's going to ground you until you're in high school," Brady joked.

"Well I can't give birth to her if I'm not ready, can I?" Mack said, more or less matching Brady's joking tone.

"Mack, I don't think you're going to be ready for any of it," Brady said, chuckling even though he was being serious.

"Neither do I," Mack sighed, agreeing completely. "But you won't be either so I guess we're in this together."

"Uh, I've got a tiny onesie with a bear on it coming in the mail. How much more prepared do I need to be?" Brady joked, sending the pair into another fit of giggles.

At least they weren't taking things too seriously...or is that a bad thing?

 **So, what did you think? I really hope you enjoyed it and that you're still interested in me continuing this story. I know that it's been forever since I last updated but I guess it's better late than never, right? And what better day to update it on than 1 year after I posted it? What a way to celebrate an anniversary. XD**

 **Anyway, I know this chapter was kind of short and sucky but I really didn't have too many ideas and I just wanted to get something up for you so that I could see if the interest for this story was still there. So please give me some feedback on it, I'd love to hear what you have to say!**

 **I've been thinking too, would you want me to do some chapters in the perspective of the Wet Side Story characters and their families? I've had a few requests to include them more so I figured that a few chapters here and there revolving around their lives would be good to mix things up a little bit. Let me know if you're interested in seeing that though and let me know who you'd like to read about. Lela and Tanner? Butchy and Giggles? Struts and Lugnut (Owllover34, if you're still reading this, I'm looking at you)? Seacat and CheeChee? Rascal? Coral (but I don't know if you want me to bring her into this story or not)? Or if you want it to stay purely Mack & Brady (which it would still predominantly be, these chapters with other characters would only be once in a while) then let me know. Like I always say, you're the one having to read this story, not me!**

 **Also, I still need baby names for Mack and Brady to use. I want to choose it within the next couple of chapters and I want as many suggestions as possible to pick from, so please send in suggestions! Even if you've already left some, leave some more! There's no such thing as too many baby names. XD**

 **I think that's all I wanted to say for now though. I'll try my best to get another chapter up soon if you want me to continue but with how busy school has been at the moment, I can't promise anything. Just know that it won't be another year until I post again. ;)**

 **Thank you for reading! Don't forget to leave a review with some ideas for chapters you'd like to see, what characters you'd like to read about and any name suggestions for the baby! See you next chapter!**

 **-cherrygorilla**


	9. Wet Side Storylines

**Uh, hey! Long-time no see, huh? Listen, normally I'd give a really long explanation of why I haven't been back on here for ages but I'll spare you the boredom. So basically school has just taken over my life and writing has had to take a backseat. And I'm super sorry that I couldn't finish my Christmas story, I just really didn't have time and writing twelve one-shot type things in twenty days kind of dried up my flow of creativity. And then I got carried away with school work and exams so…yeah, you get the picture.**

 **Anyway, I'm back writing and I'm starting with this story! I know I haven't updated it in ages but that's because I used to just write these chapters when I was supposed to be asleep but I'm just too exhausted to do that now. So I'll be alternating my uploads by splitting them between this story and Reality Check. And because I think that this story is more popular, I thought that I'd start with this one.**

 **Also, I probably would have gotten this chapter out to you a lot sooner if I hadn't gotten so carried away. So I'm warning you now, it's a long one! Anyway, this is a little different that the usual chapter themes for this story because instead of focusing on Mack and Brady, it's giving you a little inside into the Wet Side Story characters' lives. So I hope that you enjoy it!**

6:30am

On this particular Saturday morning Tanner was involuntarily pulled from his slumber when a little hand poked at his eye in a clumsy attempt to open it.

"Daddy, are you awake?" Amelia asked quietly. She was clearly trying to whisper, but it wasn't exactly working out in her favour.

He should probably be mad about being woken up at this hour of the morning, especially after a little more restless night than usual with Lily, but he couldn't help the smile that spread across his face at the sound of his daughter's voice. He wearily opened his eyes only to be met with a pair of blue eyes that glinted with excitement and a beaming smile to match that just helped to broaden his own grin. "I am now," he chuckled. And after a quick glance at the alarm clock on the bedside table he added, "But you, little lady, shouldn't be, should you?"

"Why not?" Amelia asked, puzzled by the fact that her dad had even suggested it.

"Because it's still super early," Tanner said. "And besides, we need all the energy we can get; we've got a whole day of tea parties ahead of us, don't we?"

"You're right!" Amelia gasped.

"Ssh!" Tanner chuckled. "We've got to be quiet so that we don't wake up Mommy too."

But just as Amelia pressed her finger to her lips (which were contorted into a grin that Tanner knew meant that she was using every fibre in her being to stop herself from bursting out into a fit of giggles), the figure lying beside Tanner rolled over to face his back.

"Too late, Mommy's awake," Lela said as she looped her arm over Tanner's waist and moved closer to him.

"Yay!" Amelia beamed.

"Nice try," Lela murmured to Tanner. Her smile grazed his ear as she spoke and stray strands of raven hair tickled his cheek.

"Good morning," Tanner said, turning his head to press a kiss to her lips.

But this just prompted Amelia to giggle, cover her face with her hands and cry out "Ew!"

"Good morning Amelia," Lela chuckled, smiling fondly at her daughter, who had now taken to digging her toe into the carpet as she waited expectantly to be allowed to clamber onto their bed.

"Hi Mommy!" Amelia beamed. "I brought Susie to say 'hi' too," she added, proudly lifting up the floppy, pale pink toy rabbit to show her, despite having towed it into the room by its ear.

Before Lela could answer her though, a whimpering cry floated through the open bedroom door.

"Yay! Lily's 'wake too!" Amelia exclaimed.

Tanner watched Lela let out a sigh, yet still muster a smile as she made a move to get up.

"Don't worry," he said, stopping her in her tracks. "I'll go and get her."

"Alright," Lela smiled gratefully as Tanner sat up and swung his legs over the side of the bed. "Now, let's see what Susie has to say," Lela continued chirpily as she patted the now empty place beside her and allowed Amelia to scramble into it.

Tanner could still hear their giggles as he lumbered down the hallway, so his smile never really left his face. Once he reached his other daughter's room he gently pushed open the door and his gaze almost instantly fell upon the little girl sat up in her cot. She sleepily rubbed her eye and let out another whimper, but she soon stopped when she caught sight of her dad.

"Hey Lily," Tanner said quietly as he walked over to her and lifted her into his arms. "Did you sleep well?" he asked, trying to adjust his grip on her after he realised that she was dragging her comfort blanket along with her.

Lily just sleepily mumbled some babbled nonsense and sniffled before burying her head in Tanner's shoulder. "You're not feeling any better today, huh?" Tanner said, stroking her golden brown curls as she clung onto him a little tighter. "Don't worry Sweetie, we'll get you back to yourself in no time," he said as he carried her back into his and Lela's bedroom.

"And then Susie said she had had a dream about ice cream too!" Tanner heard Amelia squeal as he wandered back through the doorway with Lily in his arms.

"Good morning my little Lily," Lela cooed upon Tanner entering. "How are you feeling today?"

"She still sounds like she's got her sniffles," Tanner said as he sat down on the bed. He tried to set Lily down beside him and prop her up with cushions, but she insisted on clinging onto him instead. Tanner wasn't exactly one to mind this though.

"Aww Sweetie," Lela sighed, a slight frown floating across her face as her youngest daughter sniffed again and coughed into Tanner's side.

"Poor Lily," Amelia sighed, copying her mom's tone, though it may not have been quite as sincere. "You'll have to get better for the tea party 'cause we can't have an empty place, the chocolate cake will go to waste!"

"I'm sure we'll work something out," Lela said as she gently stroked Lily's hair to reassure her after she's started whimpering again. Her fond smile had soon returned though after Amelia had proved that she was still her usual, silly little self with her last comment. "But, I think that before we do anything, we need to get out of our pyjamas, don't you think so?" she continued, looking pointedly at Amelia, which prompted the little girl to scramble onto her knees.

"You're right," she exclaimed. "Miss Buttercup won't like it if I'm not in my tea party dress!"

And with that Amelia wriggled off the bed and went scurrying out of the room, leaving her chuckling mother and father behind.

"She's such a little goofball," Lela laughed.

"Hey, you've got to give it to her, I don't think I've ever met anyone that's as enthusiastic about tea parties as she is," Tanner chuckled.

"Where does she get all her energy from though? She's only just woken up."

"Who knows, I'd like to borrow some of it though," Tanner said in between yawning and sleepily running his hand through his hair. He shot Lela a smile as she made her way across the room to follow Amelia, which she gladly returned. He may be grossly outnumbered in the house, what with there being three girls to one guy, but he didn't care at all; he wouldn't trade his girls for anything.

11:45am

Another household that wasn't so unbalanced gender wise was that of the Jenkins family. But it was equally as tired as the Barrets' house had been earlier that morning. Proof of this was Butchy letting out another large yawn (his fourth in the past five minutes) as Harry drove his red toy car over his knee.

"Broom broom!" Harry hollered as he ran around the room, pushing the car along every piece of furniture he encountered.

"Alright boys, park your cars then park your butts in the kitchen 'cause lunch is ready," Giggles said, appearing in the living room door way with a grin on her face and her 3 month old daughter in her arms.

"Aww," Harry pouted. His eyebrows had knitted together above a firm frown after his mom had spoken and didn't seem to be changing back any time soon.

"Come on Buddy, let's go eat," Butchy said, chirpily trying to coax him away from his toy box.

"No, I wanna play!" Harry argued.

"You can play again after you eat your lunch, okay?" Butchy said. His bargaining was accompanied by the thudding of rain drops against the window panes, which was the reason why he had been trying desperately to keep Harry occupied inside all morning; the garden was strictly out of bounds thanks to the freak rainstorm they were currently experiencing. They really didn't need the extra burden of him getting covered in mud when they already had a needy new-born to look after.

"I don't want lunch," Harry whined.

"But big boys like you need to have lunch," Giggles said, as she gently pressed a soothing kiss to Ella's head after she had started to fuss.

"Why?" Harry asked. It may seem like he didn't care for the idea, but from the way that he had cocked his head ever so slightly to the side Giggles knew that she had sparked his interest.

"Well how else are they supposed to get their energy for playing?" Giggles asked, making it seem to her son like it was the most obvious answer in the world. "Look, Daddy looks like he needs some lunch, don't you think?" she added, stifling a smile as Butchy let out another large yawn.

After Harry accidentally let a giggle slip out over this comment Butchy took it and ran. "Harry, quick! Yous gots to get me a sandwich!" he said over-dramatically as he keeled over onto his side and waved his hand at the little boy.

Harry only laughed harder now, but he soon took Butchy's hand in his two little ones and said, "Dad, stop being so weird," as he tried to pull him upright again.

"You heard the dude," Giggles scoffed, looking at Butchy and grinning fondly before sauntering out of the room.

"Fine, only if you have your lunch though," Butchy bargained, rolling onto his stomach so that he could properly face his son.

"Okay," Harry chuckled, giving in and toddling over to the doorway.

A very grateful Butchy got to his feet and scooped Harry into the air as soon as he reached him, which just made the little boy giggle harder. Once in the kitchen Butchy plopped the little boy down on his booster seat and grabbed the blue plastic plate from Giggles.

"Eat up little man," he said, setting the plate of macaroni cheese in front of Harry on the table.

Butchy should have known better than to take his eyes off him really, but when Ella began to cry he had to take over Giggles' lunch duties so that she could settle her. Taking this opportunity, Harry decided that he wouldn't be eating his lunch after all. Instead he was going to turn his plate of macaroni into the new race track for his beloved red car, which he had kept a firm grip on this whole time. But when Butchy and Giggles did eventually turn around to sit down at the table, Harry decided to kick it up a notch. And with a clatter, he tipped up his plate, splattering the table, the floor and his mom and dad in cheese sauce.

"Harry!" Giggles gasped, staring at her macaroni-coated son in dismay. "That's naughty; we don't play with our food, okay?"

But just as Harry was beginning to stick out his bottom lip and tears were starting to brim in his eyes, Butchy let out a snorting laugh.

"What?" Giggles hissed, quite clearly surprised by the outburst considering that she was trying to discipline their son.

"He really got you good there," Butchy said, trying to hide his smile as his eyes drifted to Giggles' backside. And upon further inspection Giggles realised that, thanks to Harry, he butt was indeed smeared with cheese.

Giggles just shook her head and let out a breathy laugh when she noticed it though.

"I can get it for you," Butchy teased with a smirk, already beginning to move his hand in that direction as Giggles attempted to clean herself up.

"Nice try, you can take Ella instead," she shot back, flashing him a mischievous smile as she handed over their daughter, who now had a speck of cheese adorning her cheek. "Right, let's both go get cleaned up then Harry," Giggles continued, lifting him off his chair. "Maybe then you'll want to have some lunch."

"Ok Mommy," Harry murmured, holding onto Giggles' hand as he made his way down the hallway and up the stairs.

As Giggles set him down in the bathroom though and began to run him a bath, she noticed that he was being unusually quiet. "You okay, Harry?" she asked him, turning around and looking at him with an expectant smile.

"I'm sorry Mommy," he said quietly, playing with his hands in his lap and refusing to make eye contact with her. "I didn't know it was bad."

"That's okay Buddy," Giggles said gently, sitting down on the floor beside him and lifting him onto her knee. "At least you know not to do it again now," she added brightly.

"Uh huh," Harry nodded, as a stray tear rolled down his cheek.

Giggles quickly wiped it away with her thumb though and began trying to distract him with his little red toy car, which he still had firmly grasped between his little cheese-coated fingers. "I think we need to send Little Red to the car wash too, don't we?" she asked, examining the toy, which, like its owner, was slathered in cheese.

Now that the moment had passed, and he realised that he was no longer in trouble, Harry happily let out a little giggle at this as his mom pretended to drive the car up his arm. He may have a little rebellious streak in him, but underneath all that he was a big softie really. Kind of like his dad, I suppose…

1:30pm

A similar little giggle to Harry's was passing Struts' lips as she watched her little eleven month old daughter hold onto the couch to steady herself and bounce along to the music that was drifting across from the record player.

"You like that Soph'?" she asked, as her daughter's smile brightened and she began to 'dance' a little more enthusiastically.

Struts was knelt on her living room floor, clearing away the numerous toys that had been played with at some point during the day, when she heard her husband's voice float through the house.

"Guess who got it fixed?" Lugnut asked, wearing a smug smile as sauntered into the living room. The 'it' he was referring to happened to be Struts' motorbike, which she thought she was going to have to finally, but regretfully, scrap after she hadn't been able to get it started for the past couple of days.

"You really got it working?" Struts asked incredulously.

"Course I did, I don't co-own a repair garage for nothin'," Lugnut chuckled as Struts got up to give him a hug. All too smoothly that hug led to a kiss, which then led to Lugnut's hands snaking their way southwards.

"Hey," Struts said quietly, grabbing one of his hands scoldingly. "That is for later Mr, when this little lady isn't around," she added, glancing across at Sophia, who had stopped dancing and was now trying to chew on a coaster. "Oh Soph, no," Struts fussed, hurrying over to the little girl to prise the coaster away from her. "This ain't for chewin' on Sweetie."

Sophia wasn't the toughest of girls anyway and already seemed to be rather (well, extremely) sensitive, so it wasn't a surprise when her brown eyes started brimming with tears.

"Look, that's what this is for," Struts continued, crawling a few paces across the room to fetch Sophia's actual teething toy to her. "See?" she added brightly, enthusiastically waving the purple, plastic-y ring at Sophia to try to grab her interest and make her tears go away.

Struts' attempt had partly succeeded since Sophia's bottom lip stopped trembling and she was attempting the few wobbly steps that it would take to reach her mother and the teething toy, but the thud that ensued was its literal and metaphorical downfall.

After taking two extremely unsteady steps towards her mom Sophia lost her balance completely and landed with a thud on the floor, knocking over a small tower of big plastic building blocks in the process. And that's when her face properly scrunched up, which Struts and Lugnut knew could only mean one thing. She started bawling immediately.

"Aww Baby Girl," Lugnut hushed, kneeling down next to Sophia and bringing her onto his lap.

"You're not hurt are you?" Struts asked the little girl worriedly as she gently examined her for any visible bumps or bruises.

But to be honest, Sophia just seemed more upset about the fact that the tower of blocks that she had worked so hard to stack had collapsed.

"I think you're just tired Sweetie," Struts sighed, comfortingly stroking Sohpia's cheek as she whinged.

"It is around the time that she usually has her afternoon nap," Lugnut agreed after a quick glance up at the clock.

"Could you go and settle her down for me?" Struts asked. "I've got some stuff to catch up on for work before tomorrow that I haven't had chance to get done yet."

"Sure," Lugnut said before turning his attention to Sophia. "Let's get you some sleep Baby Girl," he cooed, scooping her into his arms before taking her upstairs to her nursery. Sophia still quietly grizzled whilst Lugnut lightly bounced her and went about readying her room for her nap. He gave her a fresh nappy, closed her curtains and then rocked her until her cries were down to nothing but a forgotten whimper. "There you go Baby Girl," he whispered as he carefully laid her down in her cot, having to prise her little hand away from his finger in the process after she had gripped onto it like a vice. The finishing touches to the nap time routine were to rest her tiny, beloved lilac cuddle-butterfly beside her and then cover her with her blanket. He'd done this so many times now that he worked like a machine whenever he was on nap duty and a mere fifteen minutes after he'd walked into Sophia's bedroom he was walking back out again, this time wearing a relieved smile on his face and leaving behind a now softly snoozing little girl.

"What are doing?" Struts heard being whispered in her ear as two arms wrapped around her shoulders and a head rested on her shoulder.

"Planning out the menu for Mrs Pennington's daughter's 13th birthday party," Struts said as she lazily twirled her pen between her fingers.

"God help us when Sophia's 13," Lugnut scoffed.

"I know, she'll be asking all the boys in her class for bubblegum in return for a kiss," Struts joked.

"She's taking after he mom then?" Lugnut shot back with a smirk, earning a light elbow to the ribs from his wife.

"No, I didn't have a boyfriend until I was at least 15," Struts said.

"If Sophia has a boyfriend when she's fifteen I will flip my sh-"

"Hey, watch it, you've slipped up and said that too many times when she's around," Struts half-heartedly scolded as she added 'strawberry shortbread bites' to her list of food items in girly, loopy handwriting.

"But she's not around, is she?" Lugnut said. His breathe tickled Struts' ear as he spoke and she could tell that he was smirking again without even having to turn her head.

"No," Struts admitted as a similar smirk tugged at her own lips.

"And I believe that you promised me that we could do somethin' when she wasn't around," he added.

"And I believe that you're correct," Struts said, putting her pen down on the kitchen counter. She got down from the bar stool and turned to Lugnut to give him a kiss. Again, all too quickly things led from one to another. Struts had to stop herself from getting too far though for the fear that their second child would be conceived right here next to the stove.

"Come on Struts," Lugnut mumbled, though he almost sounded like a whining child. "Why'd you stop?"

"I stopped 'cause we can't do it in the kitchen!" she said, resting her hand on Lugnut's chest to stop them both from doing anything outrageous.

"Are we taking it somewhere else then?" Lugnut asked as he rested his forehead against hers.

"I'm way ahead of you," Struts murmured as she stole another kiss and Lugnut tucked a strand of hair, which had fallen out of her loose ponytail thanks to the couple's recent endeavours, behind her ear.

1:30pm – California / 10:30pm – Verona, Italy

Another strand of hair was being tucked behind a girl's ear at the exact same moment, just halfway across the world and not by the loving hands of a husband. Instead a lock of loosely curled golden brown hair was being tucked behind Coral's ear as it was unpicked from the intricate style it had been held in place for since this morning, when the shoot had begun. The one doing this was not a husband, not even a boyfriend; instead it was merely a hair stylist. And the hand that caressed her cheek did not belong to a significant other either, instead it was the hand of one of the set's makeup artists that was wiping away the last few traces of blood and grime, removing any remaining signs of the character that Coral had put herself in the mind of that day.

After quickly tidying her supplies into her little bag the makeup artist timidly claimed that she was all finished before bidding the actress farewell and hurrying out of the room. She hadn't gotten a 'thank you' for her work, the thought hadn't crossed Coral's mind; she was too 'focused' on lazily flicking through her script for tomorrow's scenes.

The sound of the door softly clicking closed was quickly followed up with Coral's hairdresser muttering something to her. "He called me again," Kiki said through gritted teeth as she combed out the last of Coral's styled tresses.

Now Coral may be one of the biggest actresses around but she still struggled to hide her unease when Kiki said this. "Really? Did he have anything to say?" Coral asked nonchalantly, fully aware that she was pissing Kiki off by doing this. But she couldn't resist. And besides, she couldn't bring herself to act otherwise without risking a break down.

It seemed that she knew Kiki better than she thought because the sound of Coral flipping her script shut was swiftly followed by the sound of the comb in Kiki's hand being slammed down on the dressing table in front of her.

"You know exactly what he was calling me to say," she said forcefully, trying to keep her voice down as much as her temper would allow her to.

"I don't know why you'd assume something like that," Coral said in a monotone voice. Doing this and keeping her eyes focused on her lap was the only way that she stood a chance at masking any and all feelings she could.

"Stop acting like you don't give a damn because all that is doing is making you look like more of an obnoxious bitch than you already do," Kiki fumed. Coral's attitude had finally tipped her over the edge and she'd had enough of it.

"Who do you think you are?" Coral asked, staring incredulously at the girl before her expression soon turned to that resembling thunder.

"I was about to ask you the same question," Kiki said, her voice low for fear of her losing what little control she had left and just screaming at Coral.

"You have no right to talk to me like this," Coral began, but Kiki flared up again and cut her off.

"I have every right to, Miss Barretts," Kiki said, spitting out the name that the staff on the movie set had been told to address Coral by like it was venom. "Just because you think that you're more important than everyone else here doesn't mean that you are. And I will speak to you how I think you deserve to be spoken to."

"What the hell would you have to say that would mean anything to me anyway?" Coral asked as her temper roared into life to match Kiki's. She placed her script on the dressing table and stood up so that she was face to face with her, but Kiki wasn't going to be intimidated. Everyone else on this set might have been but Kiki had known Coral a lot longer than they had and she knew more about her than Coral would have liked to think.

"You have no idea who you are anymore," Kiki said coldly. Her face and tone remained icily stern, which matched the look that Coral was giving her.

"You're being ridiculous," Coral muttered, going to grab her script to leave.

But Kiki knew that her comment had made some sort of a dent in Coral's perfectly polished armour. "What's ridiculous is this character that you've created for yourself," she said.

"Shut up Kiki, I'm not interested," Coral huffed.

"Who even are you anymore? Because you're certainly not the girl that I thought I knew, the girl who could light up a room better than any sunbeam could, the girl who-"

"I said shut up," Coral barked. Something had finally snapped inside her. "I know I'm not, but do you think that I had anything to do with it?"

"Stop playing the victim Coral, everyone knows who the real monster is," Kiki spat.

"Monster?" Coral repeated as a frenzied look overtook her eyes.

"Yeah," Kiki said. A small, exhilarated smile began to form on her face once she realised that she was actually getting everything that had been building up for months off her chest. "Look what you've become."

"I've become successful-"

"You've become a spiteful bitch!" Kiki screamed. "And I don't understand how," she added quietly. Then, looking at the warped version of her former friend, she felt her eyes misting over with angry tears.

Coral said nothing; she'd been stunned into silence. She looked genuinely taken aback, yet she didn't seem as horrified as Kiki had thought that she would. It was more like she was…intrigued.

"I don't know who you are anymore," Kiki said slowly. "And I don't think that you do either." Tears still pricked her eyes.

Coral's eyebrows began to furrow and she started to shut off from Kiki again, but that was soon changed when the next comment was hurled her way.

"You've cut yourself off from everyone and everything you love. And for what, some stupid job?"

Coral opened her mouth, as if to protest, but she didn't have the willpower to argue, nor was she able to find the words to form a coherent reply.

"When was the last time you saw Tanner?" Kiki asked. It was like she was accusing Coral already, she hadn't heard the answer yet but she knew it.

It had been a year, if not longer. Coral knew it. Kiki knew it. But neither of them dared to throw that into the arena as well.

"When was the last time you bothered to even call him?" she asked this time.

Coral didn't answer. She didn't need to. Kiki could sense her anger rising again though from the way that her glare darkened.

"And we both know how much of your time you dedicate to your beloved-"

"Don't even go there, Kiki," Coral grunted. A warning tone crept into her voice but Kiki pressed on.

"He cares more about you than you could ever understand and you can't even bring yourself to take a second out of your day to think about him!" Kiki cried. "You're pathetic!"

Once again, Coral did nothing. It was either the shock of someone daring to speak to her in such a manner that was keeping her from losing her temper or the fact that she was beginning to realise that Kiki might just be right.

"It's about time that you stopped being so selfish and realised what it is in life that makes you happy. Because no matter how much you try to kid yourself, all that fame and fortune has brought you is misery and-"

Kiki's ranting was cut off by Coral's dressing room door being pushed open, revealing a very handsome young man in a white shirt, jeans and probably very expensive shoes. "Kimberley, the car's waiting out front when you're ready to go," he said, flashing the two girls a casual, yet smouldering smile.

Liam, Coral's agent and the person she was probably closest to at the moment, clearly couldn't sense the tension between the two girls because his expression didn't change when the only response that he got was stony silence.

Coral went to pick up her script from the dressing table, supposedly about to leave, but Kiki caught her arm. "Call him," she said through gritted teeth.

The icy glare that Kiki had been previously faced with returned upon this last comment. "Nice try Kiki," Coral spat back with equal menace masked by sugary sarcasm. "I'll be sure to let your head of department know about this little heart to heart," she added. And with that she wrenched her arm free, snatched up her script and stormed out of the room, flouncing past Liam without a single glance in his direction.

Kiki was left alone in the dressing room practically shaking with frustration and now the fear of losing her job as well. She's risked everything to try to tame this monster, who had been warped by the pressure of the media from 'sunny surfer girl' into 'callous California movie star', and it hadn't even worked. She was just as, if not more, bitter and heartless than ever.

Or so she thought.

Angry tears stung Coral's eyes as she thundered down the maze of corridors that made up the Italian villa that was the set of her latest blockbuster film. And as she heard footsteps racing to catch up with her she prayed that it wasn't Kiki because she didn't think that she could keep up this whole 'I'm too important to care' act anymore, at least for today anyway. But when the person fell into step beside her she was overcome by relief; it was just Liam.

"A bottle of water and a pair of sunglasses for the lovely lady in blue, just as you requested," he said with a joking smile as he handed her both items.

"Thanks," Coral mumbled, avoiding eye contact to save her from having to explain why she was crying.

"You okay?" Liam had noticed it anyway.

"I'm fine," Coral said hurriedly, brushing away the comment and tears all at once.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure." This time she spoke with more force, so Liam didn't try to pry further.

"I'm only checking, I don't want anything bad happening to my favourite client," Liam said. His cocksure smile had soon returned.

"I'm your only client."

"Which just makes you even more special to me," Liam said, lazily throwing his arm around her to slow down her pace a little bit and ensure that she was actually going the right way. If he didn't do that then he was sure that she'd end up getting lost, she did seem rather distracted after all.

As Coral walked the halls of the villa she caught sight of herself in a glass pane of a door, which no doubt led to another maze of corridors. This place seemed to be full of them. But the angry tears threatened to return after glancing at her reflection because that single glimpse had suddenly made her come crashing back down to reality. Her face looked thin, much thinner than she'd ever noticed it before; her makeup looked too heavy, but that was no doubt to try to hide her immense exhaustion; and any sparkle that she might have had in her eyes had gone, they'd dulled to a murky teal that looked more like a polluted lake than the glittering California ocean they used to be likened to.

What the hell had happened to her?

But she already knew the answer. And it was the only reason why she was here and not happily tucked up on her couch at home.

"Liam, what time's my first appointment tomorrow?" Coral asked, breaking herself out of the whirlwind of thoughts that was currently destroying everything that had become familiar to her in her brain.

"Well we've got to be at the photoshoot for 8:00am so the car will probably come to pick us up at 7:30am. Then you've got to stay for an interview and then we're back here again until 11:30pm to shoot the next few scenes," Liam explained. He didn't even need to consult his timetable; he pretty much had it committed to memory anyway.

"8:00am," Coral repeated under her breath. She took a few seconds to think but quickly spoke again. "How many hours ahead of California are we here?"

"Nine, I think."

"Perfect," Coral said as a sly smile crept across her lips.

And just in time too because they'd just become face to face with the huge doorway that adorned the entrance hall. With that, the two doormen pulled the huge mahogany panels open and, as if on cue, Coral slipped her sunglasses over her eyes. It may be 10:30pm at night but wearing sunglasses at all times possible had become instinctive to Coral thanks to the paparazzi. And tonight was no different than any other because as soon as Coral set foot outside the building a hundred cameras flashed and shouts of people calling her name filled the air.

But not a single part of it fazed her in anyway; all of her attention was now focused on one thing: 7:30am. One thing and one phone call.

Maybe Kiki hadn't failed after all…

7:15pm – Back in California

Unlike Coral, when Seacat stepped out of a doorway he was not met by hundreds of admirers and journalists. But then again, he had just stepped out of the bathroom in his house and…you know…he wasn't _famous_.

He was however met with the sight of his wife fixing her hair in front of their bedroom mirror, which he personally found a million times more valuable.

"You ready?" he asked her as he moved over to sit on the edge of their bed.

"Almost, just gimme a minute," CheeChee said, fussing with a strand of hair that didn't seem to want to smooth down with the rest.

"What is it we're celebrating tonight again?" Seacat asked teasingly.

"Our third date since our third 'honeymoon'," CheeChee replied without skipping a beat.

"Oh, so a real special occasion then," Seacat said sarcastically.

"Of course, I don't get dressed up like this for just anythin'," CheeChee shot back as a playful smile tugged at her red-painted lips.

"I can't believe that we managed to convince everyone that this was our first honeymoon _again_ ," Seacat chuckled. They'd turned it into some sort of game now after they had come to the somewhat amusing realisation that their friends were starting to lose track of what was happening in each other's lives. So now they were just trying to see how much they could repeat things until they realised that something was up. Up to now they had been on a total of three honeymoons, CheeChee had bought out her business partner five times and Seacat had been promoted a whopping eight times…in the past month.

"They've all got kids, they're all too busy runnin' 'round after them to pay any attention to us," CheeChee said, half-jokingly, half-bitterly.

"Not all of them, there's no way that Shelley's having kids any time soon; she can't even bear to say the word baby, Kiki and Bodhi aren't ready yet, Mack and Brady don't have any plans as far as I know and they seemed sane enough to confirm that last time that I saw them and then there's Rascal who's more single than-"

"No, Mack's pregnant now," CheeChee cut in, watching in the mirror with amusement as Seacat's jaw dropped through the ground.

"You're kidding! Since when?!"

"Well Lela told me about it when she dropped by the salon today but apparently she found out when we were on vacation, no one's got around to tellin' us until now though," CheeChee explained.

"Great to know that we're kept in the loop," Seacat quipped.

"I know right," CheeChee said with equal sarcasm.

"How far along is she?" Seacat asked after a brief lull in their conversation.

CheeChee's gaze fell to the floor for a second and she swallowed thickly before collecting her thoughts. "Twenty two weeks," she said flatly, wiping her face of any emotions so that she was staring blankly back at her reflection in the mirror as she toyed with her hair some more.

Seacat was silent for quite a while and CheeChee didn't dare to sneak a glance at him, though her eyes couldn't help but snap to his reflection when she heard him finally speak. "Were you okay?"

"Yeah, the conversation just kinda moved on," CheeChee said, looking away as soon as Seacat tried to make eye contact, even if it was via reflections in the mirror since she had her back to him.

"So you didn't say anything to Lela?"

"No, and I don't intend to," CheeChee stressed, rather forcefully smoothing out the creases in her dress as a frown worked its way onto her face.

"Chee, why not?" Seacat sighed, tired of ending up back at this point.

"I'm not going to," CheeChee fumed, keeping her eyes trained on the floor until she was sure that she had won the battle she was fighting against the tears trying to plough tracks through her foundation. She was covering up her emotions with blunt anger but that would only get her so far.

"Look I know it's hard, you know I do, but we don't need to go through this alone-"

"Well we're going to, just like we have been. Lela, Tanner, Struts, Butchy, they all have their kids and they have enough on their plate worryin' about them. They don't need to be worryin' about us too; it's not fair. We've gotten along this far copin' together so that's how we'll go on," CheeChee snapped before spinning around to face Seacat. "Okay?" She didn't wait for an answer though; she just grabbed her jacket from the end of the bed and marched out the bedroom door.

The pounding of Seacat's head as he placed it in his hands was accompanied by the sound of CheeChee's heels thudding down the stairs. He knew that she didn't mean to be this harsh about such a sensitive topic for the both of them but somehow it always ended up that way. Apparently grief had worked in very different ways for the couple. By this point Seacat had pretty much given up on trying to get CheeChee to open up to her friends about what had happened because, considering that they were mothers themselves, he knew that they would really help her but CheeChee was set in her ways and she had shown then that she wasn't considering changing her mind any time soon. As selfish as it sounded though, Seacat didn't just want CheeChee to talk to her friends about the loss for her benefit, he wanted her to agree so that he could talk about it with his friends. After all, he was just as heartbroken as she was and, unlike CheeChee, Seacat wanted nothing more than to just talk everything out with someone who would understand, i.e. any of his friends since they were pretty much all dads too.

A few deep breaths later, Seacat dragged himself up from the bed and followed in CheeChee's footsteps and made his way downstairs. He saw her waiting by the front door before he even got to the bottom of the stairs, but it became clear that she hadn't seen him when she flinched as he brushed past her to grab his coat.

"You ready to go?" he asked her.

Brittle tension surrounded the couple, but it wasn't broken with the usual snap, which would then quickly escalate into some sort of bickering. Instead CheeChee's voice showed no signs of anger, her tone almost seemed soft.

"Seacat?"

"Yeah?" Now it was his turn to be avoiding his spouse's gaze at all costs.

"You know I didn't mean to snap like that, don't you?" CheeChee said, playing with the clasp of her bag as she leant against the wall and watched Seacat fasten his coat. "I should hope that you do, I seem to do it all the time," she added a little more quietly. Anger was starting to creep into her voice again, but strangely it sounded like it was aimed more at herself than anyone else for once.

"Yeah, I know," Seacat sighed, mustering a small, but genuine smile (from what CheeChee could gather anyway). "Let's just leave it for now though, I shouldn't really have brought it up in the first place."

"You're not mad are you?" CheeChee asked after a brief pause.

"How could I ever be mad at you?" Seacat asked, accidentally slipping back into his usual joking tone.

"I've seen you try," CheeChee smirked.

"I know you have," Seacat said as his own lips twisted to copy CheeChee's smile. "Now I'll ask you again, are you ready to go? I believe we have a dinner reservation that we're already going to be late for."

"Yeah, I'm ready," CheeChee said, sighing and letting a proper smile break across her face as she made her way out of the front door. Yes, they sometimes clashed heads, but that's just how they worked and the arguments never actually went anywhere, or did any damage for that matter. And at the end of the day, they always had each other and that's all that they really needed.

10:30pm

Rascal on the other hand was in a much fouler mood as he made his way towards his front door rather than away from it. The last thing he'd needed after a whole day of training was to go and sit at his parents' house to listen to his sisters gush about their somewhat perfect lives. But, alas, that's how he'd spent his evening. He had already been exhausted after practice so making polite conversation with people he plainly didn't want to talk to for almost four hours meant that now, at half past ten, his brain was screaming at him to go to sleep.

Obviously Rascal loved his family, that wasn't the issue with the whole dinner situation. The issue was the conversation that accompanied it because it usually involved questions that just made him feel worse about his current situation in life than he already did. Unlike his two older sisters, he wasn't settled down in a large suburban house with a doting spouse, an emerald striped lawn and an ever-growing family to care for. Instead he was living in a relatively spacious, yet basic apartment, was hopelessly single and, besides a wilting house plant, he only had his Golden Retriever (Bailey) to look after. And he couldn't help but be jealous of their husbands who boasted high salaries and important office jobs when all he did was jump off a diving board for however many hours a day.

But to top it all off were the constant comments that he should 'start thinking about settling down with a nice girl', as if they didn't think that that was a thought that already plagued his mind every other minute of the day. It wasn't that Rascal liked being on his own, quite the opposite in fact, he just couldn't bring himself to date other girls; now that he'd found her, there was only one girl he wanted to be with. It was just a pity that he could only ever see her on front pages of newspapers either in glittering gowns cradling awards or on the arm of a fellow celebrity ten times more attractive than he was that she was rumoured to be dating. And that, as I'm sure you can imagine, just did wonders for his confidence.

To make matters worse, as he approached his front door he could already hear Bailey frantically barking at something, which he knew that his neighbours were just going to love him for. He then started to fumble with his keys as he tried to open the door, the constant barking and thud of thoughts ricocheting around his head were not making it any easier and ended up just getting him even more annoyed.

Once inside he realised that Bailey was yapping at the telephone, which was apparently ringing at 10:30pm. Who on earth felt the need to call him at this hour? But none the less, out of sheer curiosity, and to shut Bailey up, Rascal tossed the newspaper he'd picked up from his mailbox (which happened to be flaunting a photograph of 'the one he let get away') onto the table in his tiny hallway and ran to pick up the phone.

"Hello?" he answered, trying to calm down Bailey, who had stopped barking but was still jumping up beside him.

But the line had gone dead.

"Well it wouldn't have been anything important anyway," he muttered, dumping the phone back on the receiver with a heavy sigh and turning his full attention to greeting (and trying to settle) his beloved dog.

Oh but it had been important Rascal. That phone call had been a last-ditched attempt at contacting him…all the way from Italy.

11:00pm

Lela flopped down onto her bed with a sigh of relief. "I've been waiting for this since seven," she said as a smile broke across her face. "I'm so tired."

"Come on, come and get some rest while you can," Tanner said, lifting up his arm so that Lela could wriggle under it and cuddle up to him. "I don't think we're going to have a very peaceful night with Lily so poorly."

"I know, poor little thing," Lela sighed, resting her head against Tanner's chest. "I hate it when either of the girls are ill."

"I'd much rather it be me than them," Tanner agreed, lazily playing with Lela's hair.

"Yeah, I can't stand seeing them upset, I just want them to be happy all the time," Lela said.

"I don't know how they couldn't be with a mom like you," Tanner said as a smile drifted across his face.

"Tanner," Lela murmured as her face broke into a smile too. "How are you still this sweet when you're so tired?"

"Practice makes perfect I guess," Tanner chuckled quietly. "Come on, we'd better get some sleep."

"I love you," Lela purred as she snuggled down beneath their duvet.

"I love you too," Tanner breathed, letting his arm gently slip down so that it was cradling her lower back. One more day of family craziness down, however many more left to go…

 **So…What did you think? I may be a little bit rusty because I haven't written anything in so long (*sarcastically* thank you exams) but I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out (for once).**

 **I'm pretty excited about the little story lines I've sort of set up in this chapter because they cover a bit of a wider range of styles than my usual cutesy, fluffy-ness I seem to have fallen into. So hopefully you like them as much as I do. I know I haven't explained them all in a huge amount of detail here but I've hinted at them so if you have any questions then feel free to ask me about them and I'll make sure to get back to you as soon as I can! :)**

 **Also, I think that these are the couples that I will be using throughout all of my stories from now on just because I've gotten so used to writing for them. So there'll be Mack & Brady (duh), Lela & Tanner, Butchy & Giggles and Struts & Lugnut (you're going to have to be patient with me for these pairings though when it comes to Reality Check because I have to make sure that it all fits properly), Seacat & CheeChee (ma faves) and then Coral and Rascal's futures are yet to be confirmed, for now at least… ;)**

 **Like I said at the start of the chapter though I will be alternating my uploads between this story and Reality Check because I have yet to finish that one and it's literally taken me forever because I keep getting distracted with other stories. I'm determined to finish it though, don't worry.**

 **What I was intending to say though was that my plan for this story is for the main focus to still be on Mack and Brady (don't worry) but to check in on the Wet Side Story characters' lives every five chapters or so, just because I like to write for them and I want to develop their story lines as well. So, if you liked this chapter where I delve into their lives a little more than usual then please let me know because then I know that I can start to include it more for you.**

 **I think that's all I have to say really for now though. Like always leave any ideas you have for this story (or any of my others) in a review for me, as well as some feedback if possible. I also still want name suggestions for Mack and Brady's baby because none have really stood out to me yet. So keep 'em coming!**

 **Anyway, thank you so much for reading! I'll see you as soon as I can!**

 **-cherrygorilla**


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